5:00 PM Mumbai – Stocks in Mumbai extended gains for the second day. Oilex of Australia strikes large reserves of gas in Gujarat. Indian Oil to expand its refinery production by 25% in North India. UAE based Etisalat may invest in Idea Cellular.

Indian stocks extended gains for the second day to boost the benchmark index even further than its peak in more than 30 months, achieved in February 2008.

The Sensex Index gained 0.46% or 85.01 points to close at 18,645.06. The CNX Nifty Index on the National Stock Exchange gained 0.3% to close at 5,592.15.

The country’s leading bourse, the National Stock Exchange, was rated as one of the top two Asia-Pacific bourses boasting the highest volume of trading in financial derivatives contracts, a report by global consultancy firm showed.

The Korea Exchange and India’s National Stock Exchange emerged as the most successful bourses in Asia and also among the leading exchanges globally in terms of their financial derivatives contract trading volumes, the data report compiled by Celent showed.

Indian Commodity Exchange, the nation’s third-largest commodity bourse by turnover, signed a pact with Federation of Indian Mineral Industries, to develop iron ore futures, it said in a statement.

Indian Oil Corp shut a 120,000 barrel per day crude unit at its northern India Panipat refinery late on Sunday for 45 days to boost capacity 25%, its head of refineries, B.N. Bankapur said Monday.

Natural gas production in India will rise by over 25% to 180 million cubic meters a day by 2012-13 after Reliance Industries eastern offshore KG D6 field hits peak output.

India’s gas production is currently around 143 mmscmd, of which around 42% comes from RIL’s Krishna-Godavari basin D6 fields, a government official said.

The Indian Railways approached Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd for setting up 1,000 megawatt of captive nuclear capacity on its behalf. The proposal put forward by the Indian Railways includes setting up two units of 500 megawatt on railway land. Power generated from the plants will be used by the Railways.

Tata Steel Ltd said it is looking for a buyer for its South African unit Tata Steel KZN Pte. The unit set up in Richards Bay in 2006 made profit of Rs 4,300 crore ($9.2 million) in the year ended March 31 from a loss of Rs 180 crore in the prior year.

The plant produces high carbon ferrochrome and charge chrome and has an annual production capacity of 151,000 tons.

Emirates Telecom Corp, the United Arab Emirates’ biggest phone company, said it is considering investing in Idea Cellular Ltd, to further expand its business in the world’s second-largest wireless market.

“There are many options in India and we are not excluding Idea Cellular,” Jamal Al-Jarwan, CEO for international investments at Emirates Telecommunications, said in an interview Monday.

Mumbai-based KEC International Ltd agreed to acquire U.S.-based SAE Towers Holdings LLC for $95 million to help the tower firm to expand its reach in North America and Latin America.

The acquisition expected to close this month would be on a cash-free, debt-free basis and would add to KEC International’s earnings from 2010-11, the company said in a statement today.

Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research in Kalpakkam, near Chennai, decided to design and develop a 800 megawatt advanced, ultra super-critical boiler for use in coal-fired power plants.

IGCAR signed an agreement with power equipment manufacturer BHEL and power generating company NTPC. The research firm will design and develop the advanced boiler that can operate at a pressure of 350 bar and at a temperature of 700 degree centigrade.

Indian Oil Group’s Chennai Petroleum Corp Ltd has lined up an investment of Rs 20,000 crore over the next five years for capacity expansion, a top company official said Tuesday.

“CPCL is planning to set up a 9 million ton refinery project at Manali, near Chennai at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore. This is to replace the aging 2.8 million ton refinery,” IOCL Chairman B.M. Bansal told reporters in Chennai.