NEW YORK -- The US airline industry, whose top players have been negotiating for weeks to ally themselves with one another, advanced on Thursday with a pact between American Airlines and US Airways Group Inc.

The marketing agreement between American, the nation's second-largest airline, and US Airways heightens the likelihood of a pact between UAL Corp's United Airlines and Delta Air Lines Inc.

A source familiar with talks between United and Delta said the carriers planned to make an announcement Friday morning that would include linking United's and Delta's frequent flier programs and code-sharing on domestic routes. The pact would link the nation's largest and third-largest airlines and create a network of 13 airport hubs around the country.

Reliance IndMUMBAI -- Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) will webcast live on the internet its detailed presentation on the annual audited results for the year ended March 1998 at its website, www.ril.com, on April 28 from 8p m. The presentation is being made by Anil Ambani, managing director, to an exclusive group of about 500 fund managers, bankers, analysts and brokers in Mumbai. The highlight of the global cybercast will be exclusive streaming video and audio excerpts of the high profile event live from the venue.

Philips CD-recorder

MUMBAI -- Philips India Ltd, a pioneer in the audio industry, has launched "Philips CD-Recorder (CDR 870)", the only recorder which allows to create compact discs (CDs) on either CD-recordable (CD-R) or CD-rewritable (CD-RW) digital audio discs. Philips CDR 870 plugs easily into any existing home audio systems. It is fully compatible with the existing audio cd format and can record from any digital or analogue input source, Rei Wences, regional manager, sound and vision, Philips Electronics N V based in Singapore, told newsmen.

Kerala Chemicals

MUMBAI -- Kerala Chemicals & Proteins Ltd, which is in the process of forward integration with plans to commission by October 1998a project to produce gelatine from Ossein is coming out with a rights issue of Rs 31.50 crore. For the new project the investment of Rs 78 crore is mobilised through Rs 20 crore of own funds, Rs 26.50 crore of term loans and the proposed rights issue at a premium of Rs 65 per share.

Geometric Software

MUMBAI -- Geometric Software Services Co Ltd, a leading software export company of the Godrej group specialising in CAD software, announced 92 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 3.16 crore during 1997-98 as against Rs 1.64 crore in 1996-97. Export revenues at Rs 11.05 crore, showed a 40 per cent increase over the 1996-97 figure of Rs 7.86 crore and earning per share Rs 18 against Rs 9.38 last year. The firm had a total income increased by 33% to Rs 14.1 crore from Rs 10.59 crore. During the current year, GSSL will start operations of its subsidiary company in North America, Geometric Software Services Inc.

Centurion Bank

MUMBAI -- Centurion Bank, a private sector bank, has upgraded itscentralised computer systems to the current IBM AS 400 E System which has recently been introduced worldwide. Centurian's banking system interlinks all its branches through VSATs providing anywhere banking capabilities. The bank has been exploring various avenues to improve upon the range of services. It has implemented the centralised banking system Equation/3 from Midas Kapiti Intl, UK, a leading banking software company, said Ashish Sen, MD of the Bank.