COMPANIES

Equity capital market transactions totaled $23.3 billion last week, with 59 deals in the Asia Pacific region in the last week, a report by Dealogic said.

British housebuilder Persimmon Plc confirmed that current trading in line with expectations, and it still expects sales revenue to rise about 10 percent this year.

Majestic Wine Plc, UK's largest wine warehouse chain, reported a 20 percent rise in first-half pretax profit as sales rose on substantial increase in active customers, and the company lifted its interim dividend by 17.9 percent to 3.3 pence.

Ecotricity, the UK's leading green energy company, has launched the first high performance electric sports car 'Nemesis' designed and built entirely in the UK.

The city-wide electric vehicle charging network in London will be launched in spring 2011. The scheme called Source London will deliver 1,300 public charging points throughout UK's capital city by 2013.

Tata Power, India’s largest integrated private power utility company, said its consolidated profit after tax (PAT ) increased to 6.75 billion rupees as compared to 3.68 billion rupees the corresponding quarter last year.

Tata Steel, the world's seventh largest steel company, has said its consolidated net profit after tax increased 8.5 percent to 19.79 billion rupees ($440 million) for the second quarter higher than the profit of 18.25 billion rupees ($406 million) in Q1 FY’11.

Plenty of research - from sources like GE and Deloitte, to name a few - has shown that range anxiety, or the fear of running out of battery charge in the middle of the road, is one of the biggest factors scaring consumers away from electric vehicles (EVs).

Reliance Infrastructure Limited, a part of Reliance- Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has said its consolidated net profit increased 11 percent to 3.60 billion rupees ($80 million) for the second quarter ended September 30, 2010, as against 3.25 billion rupees in the corresponding quarter of previous year.

Home foreclosures in the U.S. in October fell by 9 percent primarily because some major banks temporarily froze foreclosure proceedings and delayed sales of foreclosed properties nationwide after being criticized for shoddy paperwork, according to real estate data company RealtyTrac.

Police authorities in North Carolina are apprehensive that Zahra Baker, a 10-year old physically challenged Australian girl who has been missing for over a month, could have become the victim of some foul play after finding new evidence while searching an area called Gunpowder Creek.

The next time you decide to light up a smoke, you may be greeted by an image of a cancer patient or even worse, a corpse, thanks to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) decision to put graphical warning labels on cigarette packs.

Nissan Motor Co is recalling 604,500 vehicles in North and South America and Africa markets over fears that a fault could cause the steering column to crack.

General Electric Co will buy 25,000 electric vehicles by 2015 for its own fleet and through its Capital Fleet Services business.

General Motors is recalling 14,245 Cadillac DTS and Buick Lucerne cars with V8 engines from the 2010 and 2011 model year to address potential problems with the power steering, while Chrysler is recalling 16,229 Jeep Liberty models over faulty windshield wipers.

After a long gap, the trial of Ingmar Guandique, who has been accused of murdering federal intern Chandra Levy, resumed on Wednesday and took a sudden turn with the prosecutors resting their case after abruptly dropping two charges against Guandique because a prison inmate has refused to testify against him, even as a FBI forensic expert claimed he had found former Congressman Gary Condit's DNA on Levy's underwear.

Authorities in Australia, which is a staunch opponent of death penalty, are in a dilemma over whether they should deport Honeymoon Killer Gabe Watson, who completed serving his prison term in Australia on Wednesday, to Alabama, U.S., a pro-death penalty state that wants to try him again over his wife's death.

Most of senior executives expect only modest business growth over the next 12 months due to sluggish growth expectations for developed economies and increasing cost pressures from rising labor costs and input prices, a survey showed.

Even as demand for oil is expected to surge in the next decade or so, alternative fuel sources are gaining popularity as they become more economically viable, according to a report by the Boston Consulting Group.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded a 17-month, $988,000 contract to Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute to develop an autonomous flight system for the Transformer Program.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission announced a civil settlement with Hewlett-Packard Co in relation to alleged E-rate fraud.

Sixty-five percent of Internet-based cancer news contain language that may contribute to public uncertainty about the disease, a new research found.

Shenzhen city in China plans to have 35,000 electric cars on its road within three years, the city's vice-mayor Tang Jie said at an event in Hong Kong.

Mahindra Satyam, a leading global consulting and IT services provider, said on Thursday that it has received a contract from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) to implement SAP ERP.

Toyota Motor Corp plans to market a new electric vehicle based on its iQ ultra-compact car in 2012 in Japan, roughly coinciding with its release the United States, Kyodo news agency reported on Thursday.

Netherland-based TomTom, a provider of location and navigation services, boosted its presence in India by increasing its stake in its Indian joint venture to 90 percent from 60 percent.

U.K. real estate investement trust Land Securities Group Plc swung to a pretax profit for the first half, helped by a valuation increase on its portfolio of 3.4 percent. Net assets per share rose 6 percent.

Indian Railways' total approximate earnings on originating basis increased 7.73 percent to 520.60 billion rupees during April 1, 2010, to October 31, 2010, as compared to 483.23 billion rupees during the same period last year, said the Railways ministry on Thursday.

Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (RLL), India's largest pharmaceutical company, said on Thursday its consolidated net profit stood at 3.13 billion rupees ($67 million) for the third quarter ended September 30, 2010, as compared to 1.16 billion rupees ($24 million) in the same period a year earlier.