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.

As crisis looms for Congress in the Madhya Pradesh, Assembly Speaker NP Prajapati onn Friday accepted the resignations of 16 rebel MLAs who are presently lodged in a Bengaluru resort and sent their resignations on March 10.

Confirming the development, Prajapati said, The resignations of all the MLAs who are in Bengaluru and are not willing to come back, and who had submitted their resignation on March 10, have been accepted.

Italy on Thursday surpassed China in terms of most number of deaths due to novel coronavirus after recording 427 deaths in the last 24 hours.

The death toll in Italy rose to 3,405, against China's 3,245 even though the number of infections recorded in the European nation is half than that of the world's most populated country.

The Supreme Court directed the Speaker of Madhya Pradesh’s legislative Assembly that a vote test of the government’s majority be done on Friday and the proceedings be complete before 5 pm.

The test, which will be the only agenda item before the Assembly, is to be by raising of hands, said a Bench of judges D Y Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta. The proceeding are to also be recorded on video.

The Kerala government has announced a Rs 20,000-crore financial package for the state to tide over the present crisis being faced by the southern state in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. This includes Rs 14,000 crore to clear all arrears pending in various sectors and a Rs 500-crore health package.

On Thursday, the state has reported one more positive case, taking the total confirmed COVID-19 cases to 28, of which 25 patients are under treatment, said state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

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