Live: India Business Roundup

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India's in sharp focus these days be it for its inflation, corruption at highest business levels, or it's changing foreign investment policies that welcome business houses to invest in the country. This being the earnings season, global giants are specially keeping an keen eye on the IT sector. Here's a round up of what's happening in the business world today. Follow us for live updates.

Results declared today

ACC net profit up 41% to Rs 350 cr

Tata Teleservices FY11 cons net profit at Rs 80 cr

KPIT Cummins Q4 cons net profit up at Rs 26.3 cr

M&M Financial Q4 cons net profit up at Rs 165 cr

Top gainers in trade today

Bharti Airtel up 1.65%

Hindalco up1.55%

Tata Motors up 1.50%

Reliance Communication up 1.29%

Top Losers in trade today

Hindustan Unliver down 1.99%

Maruti Suzuki down 1.91%

Sterlite industries down 1.56%

Reliance Infrastructure down1.55%

4.00pm: Shrugging off the losses incurred in the early morning trades, the Sensex closed down 61 points at 19,522 and the Nifty lost 10 points to close at 5,864.

3.30pm: Gold too slipped from record high prompting traders to stock up before Akshaya Tritiya on May 6.



2.45pm: We told you earlier today (9.45am update) that the state government will hike oil prices by Rs 3/litre post the elections. One of our expert columnists, Deepak Shenoy, has only this to say about the cure for high prices, on his blog.

2.38pm: The Sensex crept up from its intra-day lows but was still languishing about 140 points down in the afternoon trade. Broader indices too were in the negative.

2.30pm: A group of ministers will decide next week on whether to allow wheat exports as suggested by Farm minister Sharad Pawar last week. Incidentally, India is the world's second largest wheat producer and is expected to produce a record 82 million tonnes in 2011.

2.25pm: And here's some exciting news for all the IT companies that are ready to ride the Cloud frenzy. Cloud 2.0 is here. It's a marriage of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs with customer relations management on the Internet, or 'cloud' services. Companies such as Dell are alive to the opportunity and are snapping up firms that offer social media monitoring services.

2.15: The Reserve Bank of India is likely to raise rates by a quarter point on May 3 and analysts now expect it to raise rates by a total of 75 basis points for the rest of 2011, according to a Reuters poll. The RBI's key lending rate, the repo rate , currently at 6.75 percent, will rise to 7 percent on May 3 and to 7.5 percent by the end of the year. Will it help curb inflation? How will it impact on your personal loans? Watch this space for details.

1.12pm: The Supreme Court is not just putting the criminals behind bars, it is even bringing a smile on air travellers' faces. On Tuesday, the apex court struck down the airport development fee being charged by private operators. So taking a flight from Delhi or Mumbai may turn out nearly Rs 200 cheaper for domestic travellers and Rs 1,300 for international travellers.

12.56pm: After the record highs last week, silver tumbled on Tuesday and Asian shares pulled back from recent three-year highs in a bout of profit-taking before the Federal Reserve meeting this week.

12:12pm: India and US can leverage their complementary strengths to overcome several business challenges and define solutions for a fruitful strategic partnership.

'Whether in energy or agriculture; education or biotechnology, our businesses and governments can leverage our complementary strengths to develop solutions to many of the 21st century's defining challenges,' the US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake said at the Wharton India Economic Forum.

12.05pm: High inflation is likely to push millions of Asians into extreme poverty Resurgent food prices, which rose by 10 per cent on average in many regional economies in Asia this year, can push an additional 64 million people into extreme poverty, says an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report.

"For poor families in developing Asia, who already spend more than 60 per cent of their income on food, higher food prices further reduce their ability to pay for medical care and their children''s education," ADB Chief Economist Changyong Rhee said.

12noon: Sensex steadily dipping, shares fall 1.19 %. FMCG, capital goods weigh on markets. Stocks from the FMCG and capital goods space are the biggest losers while stocks from the realty and IT space have lost the least.

The BSE-Sensex is down by 212 points while NSE-Nifty is trading 66 points below the dotted line. BSE-Midcap index is trading down by 0.4% while BSE-Smallcap index is trading 0.5% below yesterday's closing. The rupee is trading at 44.58 to the US dollar.

11.30: It's the earnings season as we mentioned earlier and the market will become the quintessential maverick as results pour in. Indiabulls Securities fell by over 4 per cent in early trade on the BSE today after the company's net profit declined by 43.85 per cent to Rs 37.88 crore for the year ended March 31, 2011.

11:10 Sony unveiled its first tablet computer in an ambitious attempt to take on Apple's iPad and grab the second spot in the market.



10.54: Sensex tumbles 200 points on selling pressure from operators ahead of the expiry of near-month April, 2011.



9.45AM:Hike in Petrol prices

Now that the assembly polls are almost coming to a close, the oil companies want to seize this opportunity to raise petrol prices. With an eye on the polls, sources say that government had directed the companies not hike the prices. IOC indicated that with rising crude prices, they might raise the prices by Rs 3/litre. Since June 2010 petrol prices have already gone by almost 7%.

Global Markets

The markets are again sliding on Inflation worries. In one of its weakest sessions of the year, stocks in Wall Street slid on Monday. About 5.4 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, below the daily average of 7.74 billion.

Japan's Nikkei average fell on Tuesday as exporters were hit by a stronger yen, while investors held off from trading aggressively ahead of more corporate earnings announcements.

The Sensex opened in the green and markets will trade thin volumes.

(Newswires)

All eyes on Wipro, Patni results

Investors, analysts and shareholders are keeping a keen eye on Wipro and Patni who will announce their Q4 results today.

2G Telecom scam to test Congress DMK ties

The 2G telecom scam continues to rock the country's political equations. Post, his daughter Kanimozhi's chargesheeting in the scam, a fuming DMK said it will hold a "high level committee meeting to decide on the "future course of action." Congress maintains the UPA government has not been unsettled by the fresh rounds of chargesheets to DMK.

Reliance plans to raise Gas output, build port at Rewas

Reliance Industries Ltd.--facing increased scrutiny over falling gas output at its D6 block--said the reservoirs in the block are more complicated than previously expected and that the company is drawing up a plan to raise production.

It also plans to build a Rs 5,000-6,000-crore port project at Rewas.

(Wall Street Journal, India, The Economic Times)

Promotions for over 20,000 TCS staff by July

It will be party time for Tata Consultancy Services employees as the company will dish out promotions to over 20,000 employees by July this year, said Mr Ajoy Mukherjee, Vice-President and Global Head - Human Resources. The move, that would also include a pay hike, would cover almost 10 per cent of the 1.98-lakh-strong software services company.

(The Hindu Business Line)

Policy shift in China to boost Indian exports: Sharma

The shift in China's policy to domestic consumer-driven economy is likely to benefit Indian exporters and enhance trade that will help narrow the trade deficit between the two countries.