The World Health Organization said Friday that the Chinese epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak at last reporting no new cases gave hope to the rest of the world battling the pandemic.

The city of Wuhan registered no new cases of COVID-19 in 24 hours -- for the first time since reporting its first case in December in an outbreak that has gone on to infect more than 250,000 people around the world and kill more than 11,000 people.

Amid businesses getting affected due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the country's largest lender State Bank of India has opened an emergency credit line to meet any liquidity mismatch for its borrowers.

The additional liquidity facility Covid-19 Emergency Credit Line (CECL), will provide funds up to Rs 200 crore and will be available till June 30, 2020, SBI said in a circular issued on Friday.

In the backdrop of coronavirus pandemic, IKEA has closed its store in Hyderabad from today till further notice.

In the interest of the safety of our customers and co-workers, we are temporarily closing the IKEA Hyderabad store for the public with effect from March 20, 3 pm until further notice, read an official statement of IKEA.

Commercial airline GoAir has announced that it will voluntarily suspend all flights on Sunday, in support of the 'Janata Curfew' proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a measure to check the spread of coronavirus.

In a statement, GoAir said, Goa Air is responding to the clarion call given by the Prime Minister of India to lead the nation in stemming the spread of coronavirus. GoAir will voluntarily suspend all flights on Sunday, March 22, in support of the Janata Curfew proposed by the Prime Minister.

Hindustan Unilever (HUL), country’s largest consumer goods company, on Friday said it had committed Rs 100 crore to fight the COVID-19 epidemic in India.

It has also taken a host of other measures such as price cuts, free availability of soaps to the needy, a Rs 10-crore donation for better testing facilities, and public awareness programmes.

Shares of information technology (IT) companies rallied by up to 14 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday after Accenture reported a better-than-consensus Q2 performance. Meanwhile, the Rupee hit a new low on Thursday, falling below 75 against the US dollar for the first time.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HCL Technologies, Wipro, MindTree, and NIIT Technologies gained in the range of 10 per cent to 14 per cent on the NSE as investors indulged in some value-buying as valuations turned attractive after the recent fall in stock prices.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Friday declared island-wide curfew in the country till March 23 morning as a part of preventive measure to contain the coronavirus spread.

The island nation has reported 53 cases so far.

Island-wide curfew declared from 6 pm today (20) till 6 am Monday (23), Rajapaksa tweeted.

Amid the political turmoil in Madhya Pradesh, chief minister Kamal Nath announced his resignation on Friday, just hours before the floor test ordered by the Supreme Court. Nath blamed BJP for triggering a political crisis and betraying people in the state.

I will meet the governor and tender my resignation, he said while addressing a press conference.

Shares of Ashok Leyland were under pressure for the second straight day on Friday, plunging 15 per cent to hit an over five-year low of Rs 41.10, on the BSE, after the company announced acquisition of around 19 per cent stake in its subsidiary Hinduja Leyland Finance (HLFL). The stock has tanked 36 per cent in the past two trading days, and was quoting at its lowest level since September 2014.

State-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) surpassed IndusInd Bank in market capitalisation (market-cap) ranking, after the sharp correction in the private sector lender's stock price.
At 10:34 am, BoB was up 2 per cent at Rs 62.90 with market-cap of Rs 29,063 crore, becoming the eighth largest bank by market cap. In comparison, IndusInd Bank, down 5.7 per cent to Rs 419, had market-cap of Rs 29,024 crore, BSE data shows.

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