A look at the headlines in this sector right now:

  1. Larsen & Toubro lays off 14,000 employees in bid to ‘right size’ citing economic slowdown: The Indian engineering giant sacked 11.2% of its staffers in six months leading to September despite reporting an 84.3% increase in second quarter net profit.
  2. Sensex, Nifty close higher as markets rise for second straight day: This is the first time the indices made gains in consecutive sessions since the Centre demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8.
  3. Sun Pharma signs agreement to acquire 85% stake in Russian firm Biosintez for $24 million: As part of the deal, the drug major will also assume a debt of around $36 million from the company.
  4. SC rules in favour of Reliance Communications in Rs 4,800-crore tax case: The I-T department had claimed that proceeds from the company’s Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds were ‘unexplained cash credits’.
  5. All public banks, some private banks will waive debit card service charges this year: Meanwhile, India and Switzerland signed a joint declaration, as per which Swiss banks will share information on Indian account holders from 2019.
  6. Facebook has developed a censorship tool as part of efforts to re-enter China: The software will allow a partner Chinese company to block and monitor content shared on the social networking platform.
  7. Twitter suspends its own CEO Jack Dorsey’s account for half an hour: This triggered rumours that the social networking platform’s co-founder had been sacked.