New Delhi, October 30
The BSE Sensex today touched an all-time high of 27,390.60 points on recent reform measures and the US Federal Reserve stance on low interest rates.

The BSE Sensex rose by about 248 points to end at a new peak of 27,346 points extending gains for the third day. The NSE 50-share Nifty index also ended higher by 78.75 points, or 0.97%, at 8,169 points after hitting an all-time intra-day high of 8,181.55 during the day.

Alex Mathews, head research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, said Nifty opened with a downside gap today on Federal Reserve's indications to end the bond purchases programme, but recovered due to short covering of the October futures and options expiry, and the expectation of reduction in petroleum prices in the near term also lifted the sentiments.

Nifty hit its all-time high at 8181.55 and it closed at 8169 up around 78 points. The market breadth stood positive as there were seen 1,575 stocks advancing against 1,348 stocks declining.

All sectors closed in green and the major gainers were realty and IT which closed up around 3.44% and 2.04%, respectively.

Mathews said the construction sector stocks rallied on reports that the government had relaxed FDI rules in the construction sector by reducing minimum built-up area as well as capital requirement and easing exit norms.

New Delhi, October 30
The cash-starved realty sector is set to get a breather with the ease of FDI norms in the construction sector as smaller players now can attract foreign capital and urban clusters can see more projects along with a push for smart cities, say experts.

The government yesterday relaxed rules for FDI in the construction sector by reducing a minimum built-up area as well as capital requirement and easing the exit norms. Real estate stocks such as DLF, Unitech and HDIL scrips rose.

Akash Gupt, executive director, regulatory services, PwC India, said the relaxation in minimum area and capitalisation conditions would result in increase M&A and private equity investment in the segment on account of lower risk and better returns on smaller projects subject to further clarity on any lock-in conditions. This will also result in better development in urban centres where space has always been a constraint and it was difficult to develop a 50,000 sq metre project.

The Centre's move will also provide an exit route for developers. Amit Modi, whole time director, ABA Corp, said it would make it easy for the investor to exit and repatriate profits. This would give the sector the much-needed boost, putting it on the road to recovery and help developers get an alternative route of funding for their projects.

The move will develop more clusters within cities and fast-track projects. Pankaj Bansal, director M3M Group, said real-estate firms could widen their horizons and save them from restricting construction projects to outskirt areas.

He said it would inject much-required foreign capital in real estate and would speed up the completion and delivery of projects and motivate investors to venture into new deals and develop projects such as smart cities.

The sector gets much-needed liquidity from the government move. Vikram Nath, director, Logix Group, said the sector was going through a tough phase for the last couple of years, causing a liquidity deficit leading to delay in completion of projects. With the latest development, small developers will have multiple options for project funding.

New Delhi, October 30
The Board of Directors of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL), India's largest car maker, will seek the approval of the shareholders to increase the FII investment in the company to 40% from 24%.

The move comes as the company today reported a 28.69% increase in net profit at Rs 862.54 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2014-15, on account of growth in domestic sales.

It had posted net profit of Rs 670.23 crore in the same period last fiscal, the firm said.

Addressing mediapersons after declaring Q2 results, MSIL chairman RC Bhargava said with the government allowing 100% FDI in the sector, the Board of Directors of the MSIL would go to the shareholders with the proposal of raising the FII limit in the firm to 40%.

After getting the approval, the company would follow the other procedures and inform the Reserve Bank of India.

The limit would be broadly the level of public shareholding in the stock. The decision has been taken in response to shareholder complaints that the limit was an unnatural restriction on their freedom to buy and sell shares. MSIL also decided to bring out guidelines for paying of dividend to the shareholders after the board approved it.

MSIL said its net sales in Q2 stood at Rs 11,996.33 crore against Rs 10,211.83 crore in the same quarter of the last fiscal. The company sold 3,21,898 units of vehicles during Q2, a growth of 16.8%, compared with 2,75,586 units in the corresponding year-ago period.

Mumbai, October 30
The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) today asked realty giant DLF to submit an affidavit to the tribunal and market regulator SEBI detailing its immediate fund requirements and their end-use to secure an interim relief to access money stuck in mutual funds.

Hearing a DLF petition challenging the three-year ban that SEBI had slapped on it on October 14, a full-Bench of the SAT asked the company to submit the affidavit by November 3. It will give an interim order on November 5.

The SAT also asked DLF to specifically mention the time-frame, the requirement, the end-use of the fund and till what time it needs the interim relief, to which the company said, till December 31.

SEBI has barred DLF and six others, including the company's top executives, from accessing capital market for three years for "active and deliberate suppression" of material information at the time of its IPO over seven years ago.

The tribunal also asked SEBI to file its reply to the DLF petition by November 30 and directed the petitioner to submit its rejoinder by December 8 and posted the matter for final hearing on December 10. — PTI

New Delhi, October 30
Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile operator, today reported nearly a three-fold jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,383 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2014, on the back of higher mobile data revenue.

The firm had reported a net profit of Rs0 512 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal, it said.

The company's total revenue rose 7.1% to Rs 22,845 crore for the reported quarter as compared to Rs 21,324 crore in the corresponding period. "Consolidated mobile data revenues at Rs 2,540 crore grew by 66.7% year-on-year, contributing more than two- thirds of the incremental revenues," Airtel said.

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