BUSINESS NEWS APRIL 3RD, 2016
Tesla Motors Inc said orders for its new Model 3 electric sedan topped 253,000 in the first 36 hours -- a fast start for the company's first mass-market vehicle, which may not begin to reach customers for another 18 months or more. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted on Friday that the Model 3, which is slated to go into production in late 2017, will sell at an average price of $42,000, including the price of options and additional features, which would give the initial flurry of orders an estimated retail value of $10.6 billion. That intense interest, fanned in part by a steady stream of tweets by Musk, could help boost Tesla's stock price, which closed Friday at $237.59, up 3.4 percent. The stock has soared more than 60 percent since hitting a 12-month low in February.
IMF CHIEF DENIES THREAT TO PULL OUT OF GREEK BAILOUT
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde denied on Sunday that IMF staff would push Greece closer to default as a negotiating tactic on a new Greek bailout deal, which she said was "still a good distance away." Lagarde said in a letter to Greece's prime minister that the debt talks should continue despite damage from reports of a leaked transcript suggesting that IMF staff may threaten to leave the bailout to force European lenders to offer more debt relief. "Any speculation that IMF staff would consider using a credit event as a negotiating tactic is simply nonsense," Lagarde wrote to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
GST WILL BE REALITY SOON: PM MODI ASSURES SAUDI BUSINESS LEADERS
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud led delegation-level talks on Sunday, during which the entire gamut of the strategic partnership between India and Saudi Arabia was reviewed."Examining the full spread of a Strategic Partnsership. PM and King lead delegation level talks," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted.Fighting terrorism, energy cooperation and trade andinvestment were high on the agenda in Sunday's talks.Apart from being India's largest crude oil supplier, accounting for one-fifth of its imports, Saudi Arabia is also India's fourth largest trading partner with bilateral trade reaching $40 billion.