State-owned oil marketing companies (PSU OMCs) on Monday, 16 July 2012, hiked jet fuel rates by 1.7% in line with firming international oil rates. The price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF), or jet fuel, in Delhi was hiked by Rs 1,039.1 per kilolitre (kl), or 1.7%, to Rs 62,208.18. The hike comes on back of reductions in rates in six fortnights, including a steep 5% (Rs 3,260 per kl) cut effected from 16 June 2012 and about 2% (Rs 1,241 per kl) fall in prices from 1 July 2012.

ATF typically makes up almost half of an airline's operating cost and the increase in prices will increase the burden of cash-strapped airlines. PSU OMCs revise jet fuel prices on the 1st and 16th of every month, based on the average international price in the preceding fortnight.

Meanwhile, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has advised all airlines to ensure that the airfares remain within the fare band, Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement on Monday 16 July 2012. In view of the media reports about increase in airfares over the last few days, the DGCA had done study of airfares and concluded that the airfare offered by various scheduled domestic airlines on different sectors remained within the fare bands available on their respective websites. In the last 15 to 20 days airfares of flights to and from Delhi have gone up on account of increased user development fee (UDF) and service tax. Fares for 14 days in advance of the journey are still available in the lowest fare buckets. Random monitoring of airfares by DGCA has not revealed an alarming trend.

PSU OMCs will be watched after the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said it has reviewed international prices of crude oil and petroleum products during the first fortnight of July. "Accordingly, the under-recovery on HSD (High Speed Diesel) applicable for 2nd fortnight of July effective 16 July 2012 is higher at Rs 9.95/litre than Rs 9.18/Litre during previous fortnight," said an official release on Monday, 16 July 2012. In case of PDS Kerosene and Domestic LPG the under-recoveries remain same at (Rs 27.20/Litre and Rs 319.00/cylinder respectively) for the month of July. As they are computed on monthly basis in respect of PDS Kerosene and Domestic LPG. PSU OMCs are currently (effective 16 July) incurring daily under-recovery of about Rs 358 crore on the sale of Diesel, PDS Kerosene and Domestic LPG.

Exide Industries net profit declined 6.87% to Rs 152.03 crore on 24.76% rise in net sales to Rs 1551.08 crore in the quarter ended June 2012 over the quarter ended June 2011.

Tata Coffee net profit rose 89.32% to Rs 24.46 crore on 24.29% rise in net sales to Rs 145.49 crore in the quarter ended June 2012 over the quarter ended June 2011.

Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) on 16 July 2012 allotted 15.18 lakh equity shares of Rs 2 each on conversion of 15.18 lakh warrants by 50 warrant holders of the company. The firm has extinguished the said 15.18 lakh warrants and the outstanding warrants post the said exchange stands at 4.45 crore. Post the above allotment, the paid-up equity share capital of the company would stand at Rs 298.03 crore consisting of 149.01 crore equity shares of Rs 2 each.

State Bank of India (SBI) on 16 July 2012 increased its interest rate on fixed deposits for non-resident Indians (NRIs) by 0.25%. Term deposits between three and five years in rupee term would attract 9% against existing 8.75%, SBI said in a statement. The new rate will be effective from today, 17 July 2012. However, interest rate for other maturities has been left unchanged.

Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv and Bajaj Finance, among others, will declare their April-June 2012 quarter results today, 17 July 2012.

Tata Steel has reportedly exited its stake in Dutch metals recycler HKS by selling its 50% stake to Euroscrap Alliance. The deal size was not been disclosed in the report. Euroscrap Holding is a subsidiary of German recycling company TSR.

Adani Enterprises is reportedly in discussions with the Mozambique-based NCondezi Coal to acquire a minority stake in its coal assets. The deal with the AIM-listed NCondezi is expected to be in the range of $350-400 million (Rs 2000-2200 crore). According to reports, Adani Enterprises is looking to become a strategic partner of NCondezi by acquiring a part of its assets. The acquisition is for its subsidiary, Adani Power, which has targeted a 20,000-megawatts expansion plan in the power sector by 2020, reports added.

Indraprastha Gas (IGL) is reportedly eyeing a majority stake in Central UP Gas (CUGL), which operates city gas businesses in Bareilly and Kanpur. This would be the first such investment by IGL which has not been able to expand beyond Delhi and the National Capital Region.