NEW DELHI: The Modi government promises a 40% increase in the supply of heavily subsidised grain as it seeks to expand coverage under the food security law, a move that can inflate the subsidy bill and disappoint critics who thought the new regime would abandon UPA's entitlement-based approach.

Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said monthly entitlement of 5 kg foodgrain per person under food security law was meagre. "The focus of the government will be on providing food security to all. With huge stocks of grain in the country we want to increase monthly entitlement to 7 kg," he told ET in an interview. He said the food law passed by the previous government was inadequate.

Markets edged lower in morning trades as selling in index heavyweights like ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries and L&T weighed on the indices. At 1040 hrs, the Sensex was down 70 points at 27,137 and the Nifty was down 22 points to trade at 8,124.

The broader markets too gave up all of its early gains and were in red with the midcap index down 0.2% and the smallcap index down 0.04%.

National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) has rallied 8% to Rs 760 on reports that the foreign broking firm Nomura has initiated coverage on company with a buy for a target price of Rs 1,049 per share.

Nomura says NBCC has an asset light business model with lower working capital requirement.

In lacklustre trade, the rupee on Monday closed a paisa up at 60.82 against the dollar on alternate bouts of demand and supply, snapping a four-day rising trend.

At the forex market, the domestic unit commenced lower at 60.85 a dollar from previous close of 60.83. It was trapped in a range of 60.7425 and 60.88 before concluding at 60.82, showing a minor rise of one paisa.

State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) has approved sub-division of one equity share into five, with the aim to increase liquidity of the scrip.

“The board (of the bank) also considered and granted in- principle approval for spilt of existing equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each into five equity shares of face value of Rs 2 each,” PNB said in a statement on Monday.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro today said it has bagged new orders worth Rs 1,577 crore in September including those for building two residential towers in Mumbai.

"The construction arm of L&T has won new orders worth Rs 1,577 crores across various business segments in September 2014," an official statement said.

Tata Motors has moved higher by 4.2% to Rs 541, also its new high on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

The stock opened at Rs 515 and touched a low of Rs 514 in early morning deals on NSE. A combined 5.94 million shares changed hands on the counter so far on NSE and BSE.

Markets continued to trade lower in noon trades on Monday weighed down by profit taking in IT and pharma majors.

At 12:50PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 107 points at 26,983 and the 50-share Nifty was down 41 points at 8,080.

Benchmark shares indices continued to trade weak in late morning trades with HDFC Group and IT shares leading the decline.

The weak showing is primarily reflecting the caution in Asian markets as investors apprehend evidence of further contraction in Chinese manufacturing to emerge, particularly if the flash manufacturing PMI data to be released on Tuesday is seen treading below 50 mark.

Internet major Yahoo has not yet made an official statement about the acquisition of Bangalore-based startup Bookpad, but the two co-founders of the target company –Aditya Bandi and Niketh Sabbineni – could not resist but throw a party for some close friends last night. “And that’s how the word got out,” says a person closely linked with the development.

After all, how else would young entrepreneurs, both graduates of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Guwahati, react after being Yahoo’s choice for its first technology acquisition in India?

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