Profit top 10: Kingfisher drama goes on; Telecom players exit

If you missed our coverage today, here are the top ten stories.

1)     MARKETS: SBI, PNB fall on Kingfisher bailout; MCX shares a big hit

Shares of State Bank of India saw strong selling pressure on reports that the public lender will provide a Rs 1,200 crore bailout package for debt laden Kingfisher Airlines. SBI, India's largest bank by assets, is Kingfisher Airlines' largest lender, at Rs 1,400 crore. Shares of Punjab National Bank, which is likely to provide a guarantee to the airline, too slumped on the BSE (Read More)

A sharp selloff in the last hour of trade saw the benchmark indices diving nearly 2% today. The Sensex closed 283 points or 1.5% lower at 18,145 while the broader Nifty index declined 101.8 points at 5,505. (Read More)

Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) has raised about Rs 95.6 crore from 12 cornerstone investors, the company said, ahead of its initial public offering of shares that aims to raise as much as $134 million. It further went on to open with a robust demand as the IPO was subscribed by over 41 per cent within the first five hours. (Read: Should you subscribe to the MCX IPO)

2)    AVIATION: Kingfisher Airlines drama continues

While the cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines continues to cancel flights everyday - 20 were cancalled today, lending banks have made clear that they have not agreed to extend further loans to the carrier, Reuters reports. A State Bank of India official late on Wednesday told Reuters that the bank has not given any additional loan to Kingfisher Airlines during the current crisis. The government has already said repeatedly that it will not bailout Kingfisher Airlines, which has cancelled many flights all this week leaving passengers in the lurch. (Read top 10 developments)

However, there appeared to be no respite for the airline w.r.t its frozen accounts as the Income Tax department moved to harden its hold over Kingfisher Airlines’ finances by rejecting a plea to unfreeze its bank accounts as well as a tax dues re-payment plan. (Read More)

The airline, meanwhile, filed a fresh flight schedule with DGCA, scaling down its operations to about 170 daily flights with 28 functional aircraft. (Read More)

Its share prices first rose in morning trade on accounts of a possible bailout by SBI; but ended 6.53 per cent down at Rs 25.05. (Read More)

3)    2G CASE: Ruias, Khaitans exempted from personal appearance in CBI court till 17th March

A special CBI court hearing the 2G spectrum case on Wednesday exempted members of the Ruia and Khaitan families from appearing before it till 17 March. However, Vikash Saraf, CEO of Essar’s telecom business has appeared in court. He has not been taken into custody. (Read More)

4)    TELECOM: Etisalat to shut telecom operations in India, will seek refund from government

Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat on Wednesday decided to shutter its India operations after the 2G telecom licences to its joint venture Etisalat DB were cancelled by the Supreme Court on February 2. The decision means that all of Etisalat DB employees will be laid off; customers will be given 30 days to transfer to another operator. (Read More)

Also read: 10 facts about Telenor vs Unitech face-off

5)    TELECOM: Econet seeks $3.1 billion damages from Bharti Airtel

Econet Wireless is seeking at least $3.1 billion in damages from Bharti Airtel in a dispute over ownership of its subsidiary Airtel Nigeria, according to a suit filed on Wednesday. The move follows a Nigerian court ruling on January 30 that Bharti Airtel's ownership of its subsidiary Airtel Nigeria is "null and void" because co-founder and 5 per cent shareholder Econet was not consulted on the transfer. (Read More)

6)    GREECE: Fitch downgrades Greece; Eurozone on brink of recession despite bailout

Fitch ratings agency says it has downgraded Greece further into junk status, from 'CCC' to 'C' following the announcement of the details of the country's debt swap deal with private creditors. The agency said today the downgrade indicated "that default is highly likely in the near term." (Read More)

Meanwhile, the euro zone economy is in danger of tipping into recession, with the services sector shrinking this month along with manufacturing, tempering a wave of optimism after a new bailout deal for Greece struck this week. (Read More)

7)    BANKING: Kotak downgrades SBI to 'accumulate'

Kotak has downgraded State Bank of India to 'accumulate' from 'buy' as the stock has risen too fast too quick belying the risk associated with its asset quality. The stock has risen 15 percent last week, outperforming the broader market. (Read More)

8)    BUDGET 2012-13: Sectoral Expectations

Dr. Arun Singh, Senior Economist, Dun & Bradstreet India has provided a detailed review of Macroeconomic Budget and Budget Expectations for different sectors. (Read More)

9)    AUTO: Hero Motocorp enters into partnership with US-based EBR

The world’s largest producer of two-wheelers Hero MotoCorp on Wednesday said it has entered a design-and-technology support partnership with U.S. motorcycle company Erik Buell Racing (EBR). This is just one of the multiple alliances that the company plans to undertake to augment its R&D capabilities. (Read More)

10)  Facebook status update: You're sued

Legal authorities said that a High Court judge in England has approved the use of Facebook to serve legal claims. Lawyers in a commercial dispute were last week granted permission to serve a suit against a defendant via the popular social networking site. (Read More)