The drop in crude oil and natural gas prices has led Reliance Industries' (RIL) three shale gas joint ventures (JVs) in America to pare operating and capital expenditure.

Shale gas, a business RIL expected would begin contributing significantly to its revenue by 2015, has been hit with a sharp downturn in commodity prices, especially in the case of crude oil.

Rebalancing of the BSE's banking index, the S&P BSE Bankex, would now depend on the weightage of the index constituent spilling over 22 per cent.

BSE on Friday announced a change in the methodology of index calculation for the exchange's banking index. "Effective at the open of January 27, 2015, the index will follow modified market capitalization methodology, capping maximum weight of constituents to 22% at each rebalance," said the release from the exchange.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) wishes to empanel experts who can opine on valuation of shares during takeovers or other company schemes which may require an open offer to minority shareholders. This is the first time the regulator is looking to put in place an independent panel of those knowledgeable, to assist in arriving at a fair price, say market participants.

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has begun its long-awaited, historic encounter with the dwarf planet Pluto.

The spacecraft is entering the first of several approach phases that culminate on July 14 with the first close-up flyby of Pluto, 7.5 billion kilometres from Earth.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is considering allowing banks to buy infrastructure bonds, in a bid to jumpstart a market that has suffered from low trading volumes after launching last year, said a source with knowledge of the central bank's plan.

This move would mark a reversal for the RBI, which last year allowed lenders to only issue debt, while limiting purchases to investors such as pension funds, provident funds, and insurers.

The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) president R Chandrashekhar today said they expected no significant change in the Indian software industry’s growth projections made for the current year.

It may be recalled that the industry body of the country's IT and ITeS companies had earlier made a forecast of 13-15 per cent increase in Indian software exports during 2014-15. It said the software exports would rise to about $ 99 billion in the current year from an estimated $ 86 billion in 2013-14.

Wipro, India’s third largest information technology services company, surprised the Street by delivering better than expected numbers, on the back of demand from customers in health care, life sciences and retail sectors.

The Bengaluru-based company reported a net profit of Rs 2,192 crore for the financial year’s third quarter ended December 31, 2014, up nine per cent over a year and five per cent sequentially. Revenue at Rs 11,992 crore grew six per cent year-on-year and 2.7 per cent sequentially.

Axis Bank on Friday reported an 18 per cent rise in net profit in the October-December quarter, on the back of higher other income and net interest income.

The country’s third largest private sector bank posted net profit of Rs 1,900 crore for the third quarter of 2014-15, against Rs 1,604.1 crore in the corresponding quarter of the past financial year.

For long, Tata Motors was admired for its commercial vehicles. Then it started making passenger cars. The cars, like the Indica, Safari and Nano, initially created a huge buzz in the market, but after launch failed to catch the imagination of the car buyer. Today, the Indica is seen more as a taxi, while the Nano suffers from a massive image problem as being a cheap car. Tata is trying to paint a better portrait of itself as a car maker, and the release of compact sedan Zest was an attempt in that direction.

The government on Friday announced a rise of Rs 2 a litre each in the excise duties on petrol and diesel. Even so, oil marketing companies (OMCs) cut the prices of the two fuels by a little over Rs 2 a litre, effective midnight on Friday.

The rise in the excise duties, the fourth by the Centre in two months, will give the exchequer another Rs 5,000 crore in the rest of this financial year (ending March 31). Through the rises, the government will collect a total of Rs 20,000 crore. Of this, the mop-up through the previous rise, Rs 6,000-7,000 crore, will go towards infrastructure.

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