NEWS CAPSULES

• In a sequel to the Bombay High Court order of June 15, Anil Ambani’s Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) has written to Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), its balky gas supplier, seeking a firm commercially bankable agreement on its Dadri power project.
• State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, announced a 50 basis point cut in its benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) to 11.75 per cent. The cut would be effective from Monday. With this, SBI has lowered its BPLR by 200 basis points since November 2008, when the Reserve Bank of India signalled a soft interest rate regime.
• Tech Mahindra said it is planning to pay back about Rs 1,000 crore debt for which it is issuing shares on private placement basis. Tech Mahindra board had approved the issue of 1.36 crore shares by way of private placement or Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) basis.
• Glenmark's novel molecule for diabetes- Melogliptin will now enter phase III trials. The phase II B trials have been successfully completed with the molecule achieving glycemic control with low incidence of hypoglycemia and neutral effect on body weight.
• TVS Motor has announced the launch of its Flame brand of motorcycles under a new name, TVS Flame SR125, without the controversial twin-spark plug technology. TVS Motor and Bajaj Auto have been fighting over the the technology rights for two years.
• Sun TV announced its FY09 results. The company's net profit increased 9.03 % to Rs 340.04 crore. Its income increased 19.47 % to Rs 1039.36 crore.
• Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, posted a 16 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 2,627 crore in the fourth quarter of 2008-09, on the back of lower crude oil production during the period. For the year, the company’s net profit declined 3 per cent to Rs 16,126 crore from Rs 16,702 in the previous year. A further drop in net profit was prevented due to a smaller subsidy payout of Rs 852 crore during the January-April quarter, though the oil and gas producer shelled out Rs 28,225 crore as subsidy-sharing, higher than the Rs 22,001 crore in 2007-08, with oil marketing companies Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum. The decline in profit was despite the highest ever sales income of Rs 63,949 crore, which was up 6 per cent from Rs 60,137 crore in 2007-08.