News Capsules

• The headline inflation rate, measured by the wholesale price index (WPI), stood at -1.61 per cent for the week ended June 6 this year against 11.66 per cent in the corresponding week last year. It was 0.13 per cent in the previous week.
• Reliance Infrastructure (R-Infra) CEO Lalit Jalan is a man in a hurry. The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) group company hasn't yet got the contract for executing the second phase of the Mumbai Metro, but Jalan's team has already started negotiating with domestic banks to tie up funds for the estimated Rs 11,000-crore project.
• Domestic steel producers — JSW Steel and Essar Steel — are likely to ramp up production at mills in North America, which have been running at less than half the capacity. This follows ArcelorMittal’s decision to hike US sheet prices by $80-90 a tonne, with immediate effect.
• Opto Circuits India Ltd (OCIL), a manufacturer of medical diagnostics and interventional products, today reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 55.3 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2009. This is 61.4 per cent higher than the net profit in the corresponding quarter last year.
• Shree Renuka Sugars, India's largest sugar refiner said today that it will expand its sugar refining capacity at its Athani unit in Karnataka to 2,000 tonne per day from 1,000 tonne per day. The company also stated that it will set up a sugar refining capacity of 1,000 tonne per day at its Havalga unit also in Karnataka. Both plants are expected to be commissioned by December.
• Four Soft Limited, a Hyderabad-based provider of software solutions for transportation and logistics industry, has won a contract from Polar Speed Distribution Limited, which is ranked number one in the UK for flu vaccine distribution.