Stock market update: Sensex, Nifty up as Tata Motors, ICICI Bank shares gain

FINANCIAL/REGULATORY

Religare Capital Markets caused "unintended transactions", the brokerage said on Saturday, a day after deeply discounted sale of large blocks of shares in Tata Motors Ltd and UltraTech Cement Ltd hit the markets.

India's central bank is considering cutting the held-to-maturity (HTM) ratio for lenders starting in April, while also looking into bond purchases via open market operations in the next two months to improve liquidity, a top official said on Saturday.

Samsung Life Insurance Co Ltd is in talks with DLF-Pramerica to buy Pramerica's 26 percent stake in the insurance joint venture.

ENERGY/COMMODITIES

India's central bank plans to introduce three to four gold-linked products in the next few months, in an effort to bring 20,000 tonnes of gold held in households into the banking system, but the measure is unlikely to cut bullion imports sharply, a senior official said.

India raised $585 million through a share sale in state explorer Oil India Ltd on Friday, an encouraging sign for the government's efforts to divest stakes in other state firms to bridge its fiscal deficit.

UltraTech Cement has begun talks to purchase an incomplete 6.7-million-tonne cement plant in Gujarat owned by ABG Cement Ltd.

GAIL (India) Ltd is teaming up with a unit of French group EDF to jointly scout for natural gas assets in the United States as demand in India grows, its chairman said. Royal Dutch Shell Plc said its Indian unit has been in talks with local authorities over a tax dispute, making it the latest global company to have a run-in with tax officials in the country.

Adani Enterprises Ltd's October-December net profit fell 40.59 percent to 298.5 million rupees from a year ago.

INFRASTRUCTURE

The Aditya Birla Group is looking to set up container loading facilities for its own use by expanding a captive jetty at the Dahej port in Gujarat with an investment of about 6 billion rupees, at least two people familiar with the plan said.

... contd.

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