Oil prices fell on Thursday as the death toll from the new virus in China climbed to 170 and more airlines cancelled flights to the country's major cities, while rising US crude inventories added to the negative tone.

Brent was down 35 cents, or 0.6 per cent, at $59.46 a barrel by 7:55 am, having risen 0.5 per cent on Wednesday. US crude was down 30 cents, or 0.6 per cent, at $53.03 a barrel, after dropping 0.3 per cent in the previous session.

According to media reports, US President Donald Trump is likely to visit India between February 24 and 26. No official announcement of the dates has been done yet.

Keeping the trade as the top priority in this visit, India and the US are likely to sign the much-awaited trade deal, set to be finalised soon, during this visit. Negotiations for this deal have been going on for months.

Noted Indian Badminton player and Olympic-bronze medalist Saina Nehwal joins the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday noon at the party's headquarters in New Delhi.

Apart from Nehwal, her sister Chandranshu also joined the party.

They joined the party in presence of Party's National General Secretary Arun Singh.

Shares of railway-related companies which are state-owned, such as Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), IRCON International, and Rites, have outperformed the markets since the last Union Budget on July 5, 2019.

From the private sector, Hind Rectifiers and Siemens, too, outpaced the benchmarks during the period. The S&P BSE Sensex was up 3.7 per cent since July 5 last year. However, Larsen & Toubro, Kernex Microsystems, NBCC, and Texmaco Rail were down in the range of 13 per cent to 41 per cent on the BSE.

British Airways has suspended all direct flights to and from mainland China after Britain warned against all but essential travel to the country due to the coronavirus outbreak.

BA.com, the airline's website, shows no direct flights to China are available in January and February.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the petition filed by 2012 Delhi gangrape convict Mukesh against the rejection of mercy petition by the President.

The three-judge bench of Justice R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan pronounced the judgment, saying alleged torture can't be a ground, all documents were placed before the President and he had taken them into consideration.

Shares of Rallis India continued their northward march and rallied 7 per cent on Wednesday to hit 21-month high level of Rs 247 on the BSE. The stock of the Tata Group agrochemicals company was trading at its highest level since April 25, 2018.

Thus far in January, Rallis has zoomed 47 per cent after it delivered an all-round performance in Q3 on the back of a 35 per cent yoy growth in the domestic business. This is Rallis' best performance in the last six years, albeit on a low base.

Onion prices slumped for the fifth day in a row on Tuesday, a decline of 40 per cent in a week, on consistent increase in arrival of new-season crop in wholesale markets (mandis) across the country.

Data from the Nashik-based National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation showed onion was trading at at Rs 24 a kg on Tuesday in the benchmark Lasalgaon mandi in Nashik district of Maharashtra.

Shares of Tata Coffee rallied 8 per cent on the BSE to hit a 52-week high of Rs 107 on Wednesday after the company reported a strong 61 per cent year-on-year (YoY) jump in its consolidated profit before exceptional items and tax (PBT) at Rs 53 crore in December quarter (Q3FY20). The company had logged PBT of Rs 33 crore in the year-ago quarter.

The company’s revenue from operations remained flat during the quarter at Rs 166 crore against Rs 165 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. Profit after tax (PAT) grew 53 per cent YoY at Rs 24.37 crore, the company said in an exchange filing.

Reliance Industries, India's largest petchem player, is launching a project to use plastics in road construction, amid growing concerns over pollution in the country of 1.3 billion whose major cities are often plagued with smog and litter.

India, which uses about 14 million tonnes of plastic annually, lacks an organized system for management of plastic waste, leading to widespread littering.

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