The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plans to permit Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) registered with market regulator SEBI and sub-accounts of FIIs to short sell, lend and borrow equity shares of India companies from February 1, 2008.

However, the entire FII short selling, lending and borrowing mechanism will be subject to the current FDI policy, which allows FDI ranging from 26% to 100% across different sectors.

RBI said in a notification on its web site that the short selling of equity shares by FIIs shall not be permitted for equity shares that are in the ban list and /or caution list of Central Bank.

India- based, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd has announced th

Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) has sold 8,03,87,686 equity shares of Rs 10/- each of HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company (SLIC) to Standard Life (Mauritius Holdings) Ltd, representing 7.15% of the total issued and paid-up equity for Rs. 200 crore at a pre agreed price.

With this, Standard Life (Mauritius Holdings) will go up to 26%, the maximum permissible by foreign investors under Indian law.

On the other hand, after the current sale, HDFC’s stake will come down from 81% to 74 %.

Country’s external debt rose by USD 9.9 billion or 5.5% during July-September 2007 to USD 190.5 billion, an official release stated.

New Delhi, Jan 1: The Centre has extended the term of the Investment Commission until December 31, 2009.

Moradabad, Jan 1: Farmers in Moradabad were forced to burn their sugarcan