Shares of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) topped the list of biggest gainers at the fifty-share Nifty benchmark in early trade on Monday, thanks to the recent announcement of a significant gas discovery in the KG-D6
(Krishna Godavari D6) block.

On Friday, RIL announced that it along with its partners BP Plc and Niko made a huge natural gas discovery in their KG-D6 block in Andhra Pradesh.

RIL owns a 60 per cent stake in the block, while BP and Canadian oil and natural gas producer Niko hold 30 per cent and 10 per cent stakes, respectively.

Nearly a decade after stepping down from frontline politics, former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has hinted at a possible comeback.

Aznar strongly criticized his successor Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, and argued that the government should offer hope, and not weak resignation.

In a recent interview, Aznar said, "[The government] should offer hope, rather than weak resignation. would like to see a very clear political project and a definite political line."

The reputation of Spain's royal family has suffered another blow as a judge has opened a probe into possible tax fraud and money laundering by Princess Cristina.

On Friday, Palma de Mallorca Judge Jose Castro declared that he had asked the tax authorities to determine whether Cristina, daughter of Spain's King Juan Carlos, involved in illegal acts of tax evasion and money laundering from 2007 to 2010.

The Judge also directed the tax authorities to furnish information on Cristina's finances relating to Aizoon - a firm in which her Inaki Urdangarin also has a stake.

After having concluded a review of Google's search engine business in January, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has now initiated a new antitrust investigation against the company, over its contentious practices with regard to display ads.

With Google's rivals having complained that the company apparently thwarts competition by using its dominance in the online advertising arena, the federal investigators will probe whether Google's powerful position in the online advertising market is actually being misused for the purpose of stifling competition.

Drug manufacturer Wockhardt has announced that the US Food & Drug Administration's (FDA's) import alert on one of its plants could cause a sales loss of $100 million (Rs 550 crore).

The US food watchdog has recently expressed concern on Wockhardt products produced at the company's export-oriented plant in Aurangabad, India.

The company however added that it expected that it would be able to restore most of that sales loss within the next 6-9 months by shifting production to some other facility.

The Bank of Spain has estimated that the debt-ridden country's banks will have to put aside additional provisions of up to _10 billion to cover loans that borrowers will not be able to repay their debt on time and fully.

The central bank's estimate of _10 billion is the first official estimate of the possible impact of bank's new approach towards refinanced loans.

As per released figures, Spanish banks rolled over loans of more than _200 billion before their expiry date as borrowers were unable to repay.

The implementation of proposed export-parity pricing (EPP) for calculating subsidy will be disastrous for refiners, analysts believe.

Government-backed Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) sell refined products like diesel at controlled prices. Therefore, their profitability numbers are generally notional unless the government compensates them via subsidy.

Gross refining margins, which determine the refiners' profitability, will get completely wiped off in case the government implements the EPP for calculating subsidy.