Mumbai: The 30-share bellwether BSE Sensex on Thursday was trading 35 points higher, led by shares of consumer durables and technology companies.

At 9.41am, Sensex was trading higher by 0.15%, or 38.53 points, at 25,588.25 points, while the National Stock Exchange’s broader barometer 50-share Nifty was trading up 0.19%, or 14.40 points, at 7,638.80 points.

New Delhi: The government is seeking bids from banks to help sell a stake valued at Rs17,800 crore ($3 billion) in Oil & Natural Gas Corp., the nation’s biggest energy explorer.

The government has asked banks to submit documents by 6 August, according to a notice on the disinvestment department’s website. The firms are required to quote the fee they will charge to manage the sale. As many as five banks will be hired, the department said.

India's power supply situation, already under stress from peak summer demand, could worsen further as six NTPC plants with aggregate generation capacity of nearly 17,000 MW face a shutdown due to inadequate coal stocks.

Late on Monday, NTPC Ltd informed the Power Ministry that these coal-based plants — located in the northern, western and southern regions — have “reached at a critical level of coal sufficient only for less than two days”.

Tata Power Delhi Distribution (TPWR), which lights up every third home in the country's capital, wants to surrender purchase contracts for 340 megawatts of electricity because of higher fuel costs passed on by producers.

The company is seeking the regulator's approval to end about 20 per cent of its long-term agreements with coal and natural gas-fired plants, Chief Executive Officer Praveer Sinha said.

At Rs 698 crore, Kotak Mahindra Bank has posted 11 per cent growth in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended June, primarily owing to a rise in net interest income. For the corresponding period last year, the bank's net profit stood at Rs 627 crore.

On Wednesday, the Kotak Mahindra Bank stock closed at Rs 884.25 on BSE, up 1.47 per cent.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) said on Wednesday that the government's move to disallow it recovery of certain costs relating to the D6 gas block in the Krishna-Godavari basin (KG-D6) did not amount to a penalty and was also not in line with the contract the two had signed.

In a statement issued on the BSE exchange on the penalty, imposed by the government for falling KG-D6 output, it said, “RIL and its partners believe the purported rationale of the government, in proportionately disallowing the cost in the ratio of actual production to the estimated production from D1-D3 fields in KG-D6 is not as per the Production Sharing Contract (PSC).”

Barely a fortnight after Tata Motors directors were denied pay increases by shareholders, Bajaj Auto has found itself in a tangle with governance activists over a special commission paid to an independent director.

The remuneration of former Citi banker Nanoo Pamnani, who has been serving as an independent director on the boards of four Bajaj group companies, including flagship Bajaj Auto, is substantially higher than those of other independent directors of the board in Bajaj Auto and Bajaj Finance.

In a move that will help cut operating expenses, Air India has invited bids to sell three Boeing 777-200LR planes. Last October, the national carrier sold five planes of the same type to Etihad Airways for about $350 million. Etihad operates the planes on the Abu Dhabi-Los Angeles route.

With development of three gas finds in Reliance Industries' KG-D6 block held up due to a technical dispute, the petroleum ministry is seeking Cabinet nod to relax timelines to allow the firm retain and produce from the discoveries worth $1.45 billion.

In yet another instance of a former American employee alleging harassment at Infosys Technologies, one Layla Bolten has sued the Bangalore-headquartered information technology firm in that country. She has claimed she was discriminated against by colleagues, mostly Indians, as she could not speak in Hindi.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.