Stock Market Latest Updates: Sensex soars 997 points, Nifty holds 9,850-level; ONGC, HCL Tech among major gainers

RIL announces pay cut, chairman Mukesh Ambani to forgo entire compensation 

Reliance Industries says Mukesh Ambani, Chairman has agreed to forgo his entire compensation w.e.f April 1, 2020. Board Of Directors including EDs, EC members & senior leaders will forgo 30-50% of compensation. Here's more pic.twitter.com/9b1DC2CkwA

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) April 30, 2020

Need to open up economy in ‘measured way’: Raghuram Rajan

India should be cleverer in lifting the lockdown and needs to open up its economy in a ‘measured way’ soon to save jobs, former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan said on Thursday, underlining that Rs 65,000 crore should be spent to support the poor amid the crisis.

In a first of its kind dialogue broadcast on Congress’’ social media handles this morning, Rajan, who was in the US, deliberated on the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

The interaction through video conference lasted for about 30 minutes.

“We have to be cleverer about opening up…We need to open up in a measured way but as fast as possible so that people start having jobs. We don’’t have the capacity to support people across the spectrum for too long. Being a relatively poor country, people start out with significantly lower reserves,” Rajan said.

“It is all too easy to have a lockdown forever, but obviously that is unsustainable for the economy,” he said.

Cashew processing units in Mangaluru resume operations

Karnataka: Cashew processing units in Mangaluru have resumed operations, amid lockdown till May 3. Prakash Rao, Chairman, CII-Mangaluru says, "This industry employs about 60,000 women. We have created SOPs&following all guidelines like use of masks&maintaining social distance". pic.twitter.com/Pj2vyQWbf4

— ANI (@ANI) April 30, 2020

RBI most popular among central banks on Twitter

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is not the most powerful in terms of monetary fire power like its peers in the US and Europe but when it comes to popularity, the monetary authority is the most followed on Twitter.

With the microblogging site emerging as a key platform for information dissemination, many central banks are active on Twitter, especially in these times of economic uncertainties amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The 85-year-old RBI and its governor Shaktikanta Das have separate Twitter accounts.

An analysis of official Twitter accounts of major central banks shows that RBI has the maximum number of followers.

As of Thursday morning, RBI’s Twitter handle has 7.45 lakh followers. On 20 April alone, the handle saw 1.31 lakh new followers, according to an official with the central bank, who attributes the massive spike to an ongoing campaign.

Sensex surges over 1,000 points, Nifty above 9,850-mark

Benchmark indices staged a strong recovery as Sensex soared 1054.89 points or 3.22 percent to 33,775.05 while the broader Nifty was up 327.70 points or 3.43 percent at 9,881.05 at around 3.10 pm.

ONGC was the major gainers in the Sensex pack surging over 13 percent followed by HCL Tech, Hero MotoCorp, TCS and Infosys.

DPIIT’s control room resolves 1,739 issues of trade, industry during lockdown

A control room set up by the DPIIT to monitor issues of trade and industry has resolved as many as 1,739 matters as on 28 April, an official statement said on Thursday.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) established the control room on 26 March to monitor the issues of industry and trade, and take up such matters with the concerned state government, district and police authorities as well as other concerned agencies.

It monitors the issues in internal trade, manufacturing, delivery and logistics of essential commodities and difficulties faced by various stakeholders during the lockdown to resolve supply chain issues.

Hero MotoCorp rolls out dealer support package

. @HeroMotoCorp announces comprehensive dealer support package. Hero FinCorp to disburse funds for dealers' wage & rental liabilities at subsidised rates
Hero Moto revises prices for new BS-VI vehicles, offers fin support for interest on dealers' stock. Dealers informed On Apr 28 pic.twitter.com/iOJ9vPuXtA

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) April 30, 2020

HC refuses to stay MCX decision to settle crude oil futures contracts in negative price

The Delhi High Court has refused to stay the decision of Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) to settle crude oil futures contracts at a negative price of Rs 2,884 per barrel.

The high court, however, issued notices and sought responses of the Securities exchange Board of India (SEBI), MCX and MCX Clearing Corporation Ltd on a petition by an investor challenging the MCX 21 April circular.

The court asked the authorities to file their responses within four weeks and listed the matter for 24 June. The order, passed on 27 April, was made available on the court’’s website on Thursday.

Facebook aims to extend products, tech built with Jio to other markets

Facebook’s mega Rs 43,574-crore pact with Reliance Jio will help the social media giant build products and technology that can be extended to other parts of the world, its chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said.

He also said the social media giant aims to create a “much better shopping and commerce experience” in India working with JioMart by leveraging WhatsApp’’s communication and payments platform.

Last week, Facebook announced an investment of $5.7 billion (Rs 43,574 crore) in Jio Platforms.

“All the products and technology that we’’re building to enable that partnership (with Jio) are going to be things that we want to do around the world. So, we’’re excited about working with them to drive this vision forward and then extending it everywhere over the coming months and years,” Zuckerberg said during an investor call.

Silver futures rise on spot demand

Silver prices on Thursday rose 2.4 percent to Rs 42,776 per kg in futures trade as participants widened their bets on firm spot demand.

On the Multi Commodity Exchange, silver contracts for May delivery gained Rs 1,001, or 2.4 percent, to Rs 42,776 per kg in 800 lots.

Similarly, the white metal for delivery in July was trading higher by Rs 782, or 1.85 percent, to Rs 43,144 per kg in 5,674 lots.

In the international market, silver was quoting 2.58 percent up at $15.71 an ounce in New York.

Bing’s COVID-19 Tracker releases new features

Microsoft has announced new features on the Bing COVID-19 Tracker to help people stay up to date with the latest on the pandemic.

These include the integration of the Apollo Hospitals bot for self-assessment and a hub for telemedicine support from reputed healthcare organisations.

The Tracker will also offers content in nine Indian languages to provide people across the country access to critical information related to the pandemic in preferred language, according to a statement.

The Bing COVID-19 Tracker serves as a single hub of news and official government information. It allows users to track novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infections across the globe and in  India (www.bing.com/covid/local/india) at a hyper-local level.

LazyPay introduces Credit Shield 

LazyPay rolled out LazyPay Credit Shield to help consumers be cognizant about their financial health and credit score.

The service will provide consumers with a credit report, credit health check, timely reminders on missed loans and payments, misreporting of loans, and credit card payments, according to a company statement. 

LazyPay has partnered with CIBIL and Experian to help consumers, experiencing financial adversities during the pandemic, to check their scores on Credit Shield conveniently.

Micron unveils open-source storage engine for SSDs 

Micron Technology on Thursday announced the first open-source, heterogeneous-memory storage engine (HSE), designed specifically for solid-state drives (SSDs) and storage-class memory (SCM).

“As the only company developing storage class memory, flash and DRAM technologies, Micron is positioned to build a software stack that accelerates applications running in today’s flash-based storage environments as well as storage class memory-based infrastructure of the future,” said Derek Dicker, corporate vice president and general manager of the storage business Unit at Micron.

“We have delivered a first-of-its-kind innovation for open-source storage developers, unlocking the full potential of high-performance storage applications,” he claimed.

Rupee settles 57 paise higher at 75.09

The Indian rupee surged 57 paise to close at 75.09 (provisional) against the US dollar on Thursday, amid higher domestic equity markets and a weak American currency in the overseas market.

Forex traders said a positive start of domestic stocks supported the local unit. Moreover, investor risk appetite is improving as India could relax restrictions in many areas from 4 May.

This is the fourth consecutive day of gain for the rupee, during which it has appreciated by 137 paise.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 75.17. During the session it touched an intra-day high of 74.94 and a low of 75.20.

The domestic unit finally settled at 75.09, registering a rise of 57 paise over its previous close.

UPL shares gain nearly 7%

#JustIn | UPL expects net debt to be at $2.9 bn as of March 2020 Vs $3.8 bn (YoY).

Demand in-line with expectations as the farming season is normal across the globe. pic.twitter.com/pvFQbuBjdn

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) April 30, 2020

Rooftop solar platform MYSUN raises Rs 32 cr 
 

MYSUN, a Delhi-based technology platform for rooftop solar energy solutions for industry, SMEs/MSMEs and homes, has raised Rs 32 crore from its existing investors in a structured equity deal as a part of its Pre-Series A round.

As the company is planning to enter newer markets and newer business models in the short to medium-term to scale up its technology, customer acquisition and financing play, it is looking to raise Rs 250 crores over the next few quarters, according to a press release.

The company plans to use the capital to further improve its technology infrastructure, scale up the service offerings, and expand to newer geographies, both in India and globally, including parts of Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa. With this investment, it will also foray deeper into its in-house SME financing solutions.

Agri-startups can offer tech solutions to keep food supply chain rolling: Study

Agri-startups, which are growing at 25 percent year-on-year basis, can offer tech solutions to help Indian farm sector to keep food and farm supply chain rolling during and post lockdown phase, according to a study by industry body FICCI.

This becomes more critical amid the ongoing procurement of rabi (winter) crops and consequent sowing of kharif (summer) crops across the country in the backdrop of COVID-19 scare, it said.

There are about 450 active agri-startups in India. Many of them are already working to solve the problems at hand, it added.

India Inc staring at 15% profit erosion in FY21, 10% revenue dip: Crisil

India Inc is staring at a bleak and forgettable fiscal year FY21, which is likely to see a 10 percent fall in revenues and at least 15 percent erosion in profits due to the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic ratings agency Crisil said on Thursday.

Loan servicing can become difficult as a result of the troubles, its research wing said, estimating banks’ non-performing assets (NPAs) to rise by up to 2 percentage points to 11.5 percent, and credit growth to slow down to 2 percent.

At present, the country is under a 40-day lockdown till 3 May, and there are indications of it being gradually withdrawn.

Crisil estimated one month of the lockdown to shave off 3 percentage points from the gross domestic product (GDP) and warned that its base case of 1.8 per cent growth for FY21 may fall to zero if the lockdown continues.

Gold futures surge on spot demand

Gold prices on Thursday rose Rs 254 to Rs 45,800 per 10 gram in futures trade as speculators indulged in creating fresh positions on firm spot demand.

On the Multi Commodity Exchange, gold contracts for June traded higher by Rs 254, or 0.56 percent, to Rs 45,800 per 10 gram in a business turnover of 14,136 lots.

The yellow metal for August delivery edged up by Rs 280, or 0.61 percent, to Rs 45,937 per 10 gram in a business turnover of 5,650 lots.

Tata Steel raises Rs 1,000 cr via NCDs

Tata Steel on Thursday said it has raised Rs 1,000 crore through allotment of non-convertible debentures (NCDs) on private placement basis.

“The Committee of directors today approved allotment of 10,000 unsecured, rated, listed, redeemable, NCDs of face value Rs 10,00,000 each, for cash aggregating to Rs 1,000 crore, to identified investors on private placement basis…” the company said in a BSE filing.           

It said the issue consisted of two series — Series A and Series B of 5,000 NCDs each. While Series A had a floating coupon rate of 7.85 percent per annum, the other Series had a fixed coupon rate of 7.95 percent.

An amount of Rs 500 crore was raised in each series.

Sensex jumps 857 points, Nifty above 9,800-mark

Sensex was trading 857.48 points or 2.62 percent higher at 33,577.64 while the broader Nifty was up 254.75 points or 2.67 percent at 9,808.10 at around 2.15 pm.

Industries in Maharashtra may resume soon in areas not hit by COVID-19: Sharad Pawar

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday said he is sure that steps will be taken soon to resume business activities in parts of Maharashtra which are not hit by COVID-19, to bring the state’’s economy on track and restore normalcy after the lockdown ends on 3 May.

In his address via Facebook Live, Pawar said different decisions on movement restrictions may be taken in connection with coronavirus hotspots like Mumbai and Pune. 

Pawar said steps to relax curbs should be taken on the condition of adhering strictly to social distancing norms to keep the deadly coronavirus at bay.

He expressed concern over the rise in number of COVID-19 cases in Mumbai, Pune, Malegaon, Aurangabad and other parts of Maharashtra, noting that the cases are mainly from densely-populated areas.

Shell cuts dividend for first time since World War II

Royal Dutch Shell cut its dividend for the first time since World War Two on Thursday as the energy company retrenched in the face of an unprecedented drop in oil demand due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Shell also suspended the next tranche of its share buyback programme and said it was reducing oil and gas output by nearly a quarter after its net profit almost halved in the first three months of 2020.

Shell’s shares in London had slumped 7 percent, sharply underperforming rival BP which was down 2.2 percent.

Sensex, Nifty racing ahead

Indian markets at half time are racing ahead with an ascend of 2.80 percent making it fourth straight session of gains, as bulls are completely dominating the street, said Aditya Agarwala, senior technical analyst, YES Securities.

“Further, post this sharp rise of 320 points, the index has approached 50 percent Fibonacci retracement level of the fall from 12,240 to 7,500 placed at 9,880 which also happens to be the 50-DMA. Bears are making efforts to protect this cluster of resistance which has led to minor profit booking from the highs of 9,889,” he said.

Pidilite gains 2% from lows

#CNBCTV18Market | Pidilite gains 2% from lows pic.twitter.com/Xc94i7mtOh

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) April 30, 2020

AI-based analytics solution for face mask, social distancing detection

Vehant Technologies has launched COVID Analytics- an AI-based intelligent analytics solution.

Its artificial intelligence (AI) programme detects violations like face mask detection, social distance detection, and vehicle movement detection through automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) during movement restrictions imposed by the administrative authorities.

This system can be deployed on the shop floors, construction sites, manufacturing units, traffic lights/junctions, airports, and business parks among others.

It has also developed a thermal and vision camera – FebriEye, which not only measures forehead temperature but also, detects face-mask and social distancing violations. It generates an alarm in case of any deviations.

Indices give up gains as Sensex up 862 points, Nifty holds 9,800-mark

The market erased the gains as Sensex was trading 861.95 points or 2.63 percent higher at 33,582.11 while the broader Nifty was up 248.30 points or 2.6 percent at 9,801.65 at around 1.15 pm.

Nine in 10 urban Indians consider banking as most essential service: Survey

Majority of urban Indians consider banking and online home repairs as important essential service during the lockdown, even as nearly three-quarter of respondents said they are satisfied with the available essential services, says a survey.

According to a survey by market research and data company YouGov, nine in 10 urban Indians (89 per cent) picked banks as the most essential service during the lockdown from a list of businesses providing non-essential goods and services.

Banking was followed by the online home repairs, which was considered to be crucial during this time by around three-quarters (74 per cent) of respondents. The onset of summer and the need for AC and fridge servicing could be the reason for placing greater importance on this need, the survey noted.

Interestingly, the survey said many people considered newspapers and magazines as well as pet stores to be of higher importance (61 per cent each) in the current scenario than the availability of alcohol and cigarettes.

Nokia profit up; sales dip with coronavirus supply issues

Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia has reported improved first quarter profit but said the COVID-19 pandemic dented sales by around 200 million euros ($218 million) mainly due to supply issues associated with disruptions in China.

The company based in Espoo, Finland, reported Thursday net profit of 33 million euros for the January-March period, in comparison to a loss of 116 million euros the previous year. Sales were down 2 percent at 4.9 billion euros.

CEO Rajeev Suri said Nokia didn’’t see a decline in demand in the first quarter but noted that as the coronavirus situation develops “an increase in supply and delivery challenges in a number of countries is possible and some customers may re-assess their spending plans.”

Regulatory benefits under SLF-MF scheme to be extended to all banks: RBI

. @RBI says regulatory benefits under SLF-MF scheme will be extended to all banks irrespective of whether they avail funding from the Reserve Bank or deploy their own resources under the above-mentioned scheme pic.twitter.com/p0cJ4GCd0t

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) April 30, 2020

G-20 advanced economies to contract by 5.8%: Moody’s

Moody’s Investors Service has lowered its 2020-21 real GDP forecasts for all G-20 economies on the ground that economic costs of coronavirus crisis amid the near shutdown of the global economy are accumulating rapidly.

It now expects the G-20 advanced economies as a group to contract by 5.8 percent in 2020.

Even with a gradual recovery, it expects 2021 real GDP in most advanced economies to be below pre-coronavirus levels.

“Excluding China, we forecast the G-20 emerging market countries to contract 3.5 per cent in 2020, down from our forecast of 3.2 percent growth before the outbreak. We expect China’s economy to grow by 1 percent in 2020,” it said in a research update.

BMW rolls out special service scheme for vehicles owned by doctors

German luxury carmaker BMW on Thursday said it has initiated a special aftersales service scheme exclusively for doctors who own a BMW, MINI or a BMW Motorrad bike and have been working round-the-clock to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a gesture of appreciation towards doctors, the company along with its dealer partners will offer complementary engine oil service at its dealership service centres across the country, BMW Group India said in a statement.

“Doctors have been tirelessly working every day to ensure public health and safety. Complementary engine oil service is a small gesture of appreciation from us and our dealer partners, for the selfless service of our patrons from the medical fraternity,” BMW Group India president (acting) Arlindo Teixeira said.

CavinKare launches gadget disinfectant 

CavinKare on Thursday announced the launch of disinfectant brand named Bacto-V.

Under Bacto-V there are two products—gadget disinfectant, surface disinfectant. In the time of coronavirus and lockdowns, in addition to personal gadgets, disinfecting touchable surfaces is also the need-of-the-hour than just cleaning.

Venkatesh Vijayaraghavan, director and chief executive officer – personal care & alliances, CavinKare said, “These innovations have been specially formulated by our team of scientists and are microbiologically tested to be safe and effective.”

Bacto-V Gadget Disinfectant and Bacto-V Multi Surface Disinfectant will be available to consumers across various channels –kirana stores, modern trade and e-commerce platforms.

The multi-surface disinfectant spray is available in 180 ML SKU at Rs 120 and 250 ML SKU at Rs 165 while the Bacto-V gadget disinfectant is available in 100 ML at Rs 249.

SEBI penalises two persons in WhatsApp leak case

Markets regulator Sebi has penalised two persons after finding them guilty of releasing unpublished price sensitive information related to financial results of Ambuja Cements through WhatsApp messages prior to official announcement by the company.

In an order, the regulator levied a fine of Rs 15 lakh each on Neeraj Kumar Agarwal and Shruti Vishal Vora.

Earlier, the regulator penalised them for releasing unpublished price sensitive information (UPSI) related to financial results of Bajaj Auto through WhatsApp messages.

Some news reports had referred to the circulation of UPSI in various private WhatsApp groups about certain companies ahead of their official announcements to the respective stock exchanges.

Truck operations resume in Andhra Pradesh

Easing of lockdown curbs, picking up of Rabi farming season and the prospects of more intra-state movement seem to have perked up the private goods transport sector in Andhra Pradesh with about 30 percent of the trucks started rolling into the roads in the last few days.

Truck operators, however, are unhappy that lorries carrying non-essential commodities are still not being permitted despite clear guidelines from the Centre.

Following considerable easing of restrictions in the ongoing national lockdown, about 30 percent of the trucks have started services and the government has pitched in with its part in providing safety kits to the drivers.

Mostly essential commodities, fruits and paddy are being carried both within and outside the state.

Sensex soars over 1,100 points, Nifty above 9,850-mark

The market extended the gains as Sensex surged 1137.77 points or 3.48 percent to 33,857.93 while the broader Nifty was up 329.75 points or 3.45 percent at 9,883.10 at around 12.20 pm.

Hero MotoCorp was the top gainer in the Sensex pack jumping over 8 percent.

Walk-in sample collection kiosk for COVID-19 tests developed by ITI in Odisha

In an effort to ensure the safety of health workers in the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak, state-run Industrial Training Institute (ITI), Cuttack has developed a portable walk-in kiosk for collecting samples from suspected coronavirus-infected persons, an official said on Thursday.

Inspired by a similar initiative taken by medical staff in South Korea, a dedicated team of 4 skilled trainers of the institute started working on the project and developed the mobile sample collection unit, its principal Hrushikesh Mohanty said.

This will help health workers maintain social distancing norms while collecting samples from people, he said.

The walk-in sample collection kiosk is a mobile cubicle with a sealed glass on its front side that protects the health personnel from getting infected with the virus while collecting the samples, he said.

Just Dial announces share buyback of Rs 220 cr

#JustIn | Just Dial approves buyback worth up to Rs 220 cr at maximum Rs 700/sh pic.twitter.com/Y6ZZqMTkUH

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) April 30, 2020

Morepen Laboratories​ gets ISO-13485 certification for facility in HP

Morepen Laboratories has received the prestigious ISO-13485 certification from BSI (British Standards Institution, UK) for its state-of-the-art medical devices manufacturing facility at Baddi (Himachal Pradesh).

The certification has been awarded for the manufacturing, distribution and after sales service of all point-of-care diagnostic medical devices and their accessories manufactured at the company’s facility in Baddi.

The manufacturing facility and its management systems were rigorously audited by experts and the company has been awarded the certification based on the comprehensive audit procedures undertaken by the notified body.

The ISO-13485 standard is an international standard which specifies requirements for Quality Management Systems (QMS) that are to be used by an organization involved in one or more stages of the life-cycle of a medical device.