Business

After opening on a tepid note, the 30-share index was trading 309.68 points or 0.93 per cent higher at 33,613.20.

India's infrastructure output, contributing nearly 40% in industrial production, contracted 38.1% in April from a year earlier, the worst performance in years, government data showed on Friday.

Protesters have flooded the streets in the United States over the death of George Floyd in police custody, in a wave of outrage sweeping a politically and racially divided nation.

The government, however, claims that with relaxations in Lockdown 4.0, which allowed more economic activities, the manufacturing sector has seen a spurt in many cases to up to 33%.

Sitharaman said making a "realistic assessment" of economic growth would be difficult at this point of time as there is no clarity on when the pandemic would retreat.

The RBI on Friday reduced the repo rate by 40 basis points to a historic low of 4 per cent, besides extending loan moratorium for all retail and commercial borrowers by another three months till August 31.

On Friday, the Reserve Bank of India allowed banks and other lending institutions to extend the moratorium on loans by another three months -- from June 1, 2020 to August 31, 2020.

Employer contributions to the social security scheme run by the EPFO shall be 10 per cent of the wages of May, June and July due in June, July and August, respectively, the statement explained.

The government last week announced a support package of Rs 3.70 lakh crore for MSME sector, Rs 75,000 crore for NBFCs and Rs 90,000 crore for power distribution companies.

Bharti Airtel Ltd posted a loss of 52.37 billion rupees for the three months ended March 31, compared with a profit of 1.07 billion rupees a year earlier.

Jio Platforms has raised ₹ 67,194.75 crore from leading technology investors including Facebook, Silver Lake Partners, Vista Equity Partners and General Atlantic in the last month.

The government has decided to drop seven compoundable offences, while five will be dealt with under an alternative framework.

Items banned for imports can only be purchased from within the country, she said presenting the fourth tranche of the economic stimulus package.

Union Finance Minister Sitharaman also announced a Rs 1 lakh crore Agri Infrastructure Fund that will finance projects at farm-gate and aggregation point for efficient post-harvest management of crops.

GAIL hopes to resume receiving cargoes at the Ratnagiri Port in Maharashtra in October, the GAIL source said, adding that the company received its last LNG cargo at the port from Russia's Gazprom on May 8.

The government had budgeted Rs 7.8 lakh crore in gross market borrowing, in the current fiscal, but following COVID-19 disruptions, it had last week announced an additional borrowing of Rs 4.2 lakh crore, taking the total to Rs 12 lakh crore, primarily to...