Brussels - Shares in fallen Belgian banking giant Fortis surged by over 40 per cent on Monday morning as investors gave an enthusiastic welcome to a sell-off deal agreed with French bank BNP Paribas over the weekend.

As markets opened, Fortis shares jumped up to 1.42 euros (1.80 dollars), 42.6 per cent above the close on Friday. They fell back during early trading to 1.20 euros, 25 per cent above Friday's close.

In a bid to drive demand in the market, second largest car manufacturer and largest car exporter in India, Hyundai Motor India (HMI) is likely to soon launch a diesel version of their new models -i10 and i20- in the market.

Speaking on this, Arvind Saxena (Senior Vice President, HMI) said, “We will launch the i20 diesel for the domestic market this year. But we are yet to finalize the engine size.”

It is learnt that the i20 diesel would be launched before the diesel version of the i10.

Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) is all set to phase out its 2.6 litre CRDe engine, which at present powers the older Scorpio models.

The new car model is available in two variants - VLS and VLX, both priced a little over 10.50 lakhs.

The new Scorpio will now be powered by the m_Hawk engine.

At present, only the VLX model of Mahindra Scorpio is powered by the m_Hawk engine.

Apart from this, the new Scorpio would now come in a complete new look. The new Scorpio would come with cosmetic changes inside and out.

House of Pearl Fashions (HOPFL), a multinational ready to wear apparel manufacturing conglomerate, has signed a multi-year license agreement with Geoffrey Beene, LLC for men's casual slacks, casual shorts and dress slacks under the Geoffrey Beene Label.

The company signed deal through its US-based subsidiary christened House of Pearl Fashions (US) Ltd.

It should be noted that Geoffrey Beene, Inc. was incorporated in 1963 and is currently operated by its president and CEO, Tom Hutton.

India's largest cable company, Polycab Wires and Cables, has entered into an alliance with France's Nexans to set up Euro 60-million (Rs 400-crore) project near Baroda in Gujarat.

The joint venture, with its headquarters in Vadodara in the state of Gujarat, will cover the manufacturing and marketing of special cables for the shipbuilding, material handling, railways and windpower industries.

Voltas, part of the Tata group, has informed that its textile machinery division has entered into a partnership deal with Germany's Thies to sell and service Thies products in India.

Under the arrangement, Thies will supply products such as fabric dyeing machines, jiggers and bleaching plants in India.

According to an official statement, the partnership will use the market potential of processing segments, which offer unique opportunities for India to augment its share in the international textiles trade.