ACC reported a growth in production at 2.17 million tonne (MT) in April 2012 from 2.06 MT in April 2011. During the month under review, dispatches grew to 2.07 MT as compared to 2.05 MT in the same period previous year.

Ambuja Cements reported a growth in production at 1.91 million tonne (MT) in the month of April from 1.81 MT in April 2011. During the month under review, dispatches grew to 1.85 MT as against 1.82 MT in April last year.

Larsen and Toubro (L&T) said it has filed more than 100 patent applications for its electrical and automation products during year ended March 2012 (FY 2012). L&T Electrical & Automation (E&A) division filed 162 patent along with 16 trademark applications, 10 design registrations and nine copyrights in FY 2012, which is an improvement over the last year. The division also filed 10 international patent applications through PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) in FY12.

Petronet LNG and Gangavaram Port (GPL) on 2 May 2012 signed a firm and binding term sheet for developing a land based liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Gangavaram Port, Andhra Pradesh with a capacity of 5 million metric tonne per annum (mmtpa).

Tata Motors after market hours on Wednesday, 2 May 2012, said that the company and Fiat have agreed that, in order to further develop the Fiat brand in India, the management control of Fiat's commercial and distribution activities will be handed over to a separate Fiat Group owned company. Currently, Tata Motors has been managing the distribution responsibility of the Fiat branded products in India through joint Tata-Fiat dealerships.

Development of the new Fiat dealer network for India will start progressively and the 178 existing Fiat-franchised Tata dealers in 129 cities will be encouraged to form the foundation of the future network. Fiat will establish a new, separate, company which will assume responsibility for all commercial and service related activities from the current Tata-dedicated team assigned to manage the Fiat brand. Both, Fiat and Tata will endeavor to ensure a smooth transition of sales and service support to customers and the dealer network.

Announced in 2006, the Fiat-Tata joint venture also encompasses manufacturing activities located in Ranjangaon in Maharashtra. The manufacturing plant uses state-of-the-art technology to produce Fiat and Tata cars in addition to engines and transmissions for both the Indian and export market and recently announced a contract to supply its Small Diesel Engine to Maruti Suzuki. In its five years of operation, the industrial JV has produced some 1,90,000 cars and 3,37,000 powertrains. It will continue with these manufacturing activities as they are outside of the new distribution agreement and will supply cars and powertrains to Fiat and Tata.

Pantaloon Retail (India) board meets today, 3 May 2012 to consider, discuss and approve issue of equity shares / debentures / convertible securities / warrants convertible into equity shares of the company to the investors on preferential basis as per the Sebi guidelines.

Ashok Leyland commercial vehicle sales reportedly rose 57% to 8,686 units in April 2012 over April 2011.

Mahindra Satyam announced that it is enhancing its current relationship with Symantec Corp., a leading provider of data protection, high availability, security and storage products, to collaborate on security solutions for smart grid. The two companies plan to work together to jointly improve smart grid network security, which will also enhance Mahindra Satyam's ability to deliver secure and effective smart grid services to utilities globally.

Bank stocks may be in focus after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced guidelines on implementation of Basel III capital rules. The RBI has come out with the final guidelines on Basel III capital regulations. These guidelines would become effective from January 1, 2013 in a phased manner, the central bank said on Wednesday. The Basel III capital ratios will be fully implemented as on March 31, 2018, it added. The capital requirements for the implementation of Basel III guidelines may be lower during the initial periods and higher during the later years, according to the RBI. While undertaking the capital planning exercise, banks should keep this in view, it said. The RBI also said that it is currently working on operational aspects of implementation of the Countercyclical Capital Buffer. Guidance to banks on this will be issued in due course, it said.

Sugar stocks may be in demand after the government removed the cap on sugar exports and placed the commodity under the open general licence (OGL) category.

On a consolidated basis, Carborundum Universal reported net profit after minority interest of Rs 54.04 crore in the quarter ended March 2012 as against Rs 49.43 crore during the previous quarter ended March 2011. Sales reported to Rs 497.05 crore in the quarter ended March 2012 as against Rs 411.64 crore during the previous quarter ended March 2011.

Net profit of Kansai Nerolac Paints declined 23.77% to Rs 44.90 crore in the quarter ended March 2012 as against Rs 58.90 crore during the previous quarter ended March 2011. Sales rose 28.02% to Rs 662.50 crore in the quarter ended March 2012 as against Rs 517.50 crore during the previous quarter ended March 2011.

Net profit of Timken India declined 21.63% to Rs 18.01 crore in the quarter ended March 2012 as against Rs 22.98 crore during the previous quarter ended March 2011. Sales rose 3.50% to Rs 170.99 crore in the quarter ended March 2012 as against Rs 165.21 crore during the previous quarter ended March 2011.

Net profit of Birla Corporation declined 8.85% to Rs 57.46 crore in the quarter ended March 2012 as against Rs 63.04 crore during the previous quarter ended March 2011. Sales rose 9.75% to Rs 651.36 crore in the quarter ended March 2012 as against Rs 593.50 crore during the previous quarter ended March 2011.

Marico, Piramal Healthcare, Gujarat Pipavav Port, Aventis Pharma, Finolex Cables, Gujurat Pipavav Port, Ingersoll Rand, KEC International, IL&FS Investment, Info Edge among others will declare their quarter ended March 2012 earnings today, 3 May 2012.