Mumbai: Snapping its eight-day winning streak, the BSE benchmark Sensex declined by over 222 points on Friday to end at 38,164.61 as investors booked profits after Fitch Ratings cut India's growth forecast.

The 30-share index opened on a positive note at 38,452.47, but soon succumbed to heavy selling pressure, touching an intra-day low of 38,089.36. It finally closed at 38,164.61, down by 222.14 points, or 0.58 per cent. On similar lines, the NSE Nifty shed 64.15 points, or 0.56 per cent, to finish at 11,456.90.

Hyundai Motor Group companies’ shareholders rejected on Friday Elliott Management’s demands for a massive special dividend and board seats, dealing a blow to the U.S. hedge fund’s campaign to shake up South Korea’s second-biggest family-run conglomerate.

Although Hyundai fended off the threat from Elliott at the closely watched vote, it still faces a daunting challenge of winning shareholder support for a planned restructuring that should aid the handover of the group’s reins to heir apparent Euisun Chung.

Fitch Ratings Friday said that it has assigned BBB-(EXP), an investment grade rating, to NTPC’s proposed senior unsecured notes.

The proposed notes are to be issued out of the company’s USD 6 billion medium-term note programme and are rated at the same level as the NTPC’s senior unsecured rating, as they will constitute its direct, unconditional, unsubordinated and unsecured obligations, a Fitch Ratings statement said.

Which is the fastest 4G telecom operator in the country? According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), it is Reliance Jio by one methodology and Bharti Airtel by another.

Even the average download speed is very divergent in the two sets of methods adopted by the regulator.

The Reserve Bank of India’s recent decision to inject $5 billion through foreign exchange reserve swap has been taken to help banks quickly cut interest rates in line with the monetary policy. The move would not only improve the liquidity and monetary transmission in the economy, but also help controlling the currency appreciation, says Murthy Nagarajan, Tata Mutual Fund’s Head-Fixed Income.

Shares of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) rose 3 per cent to Rs 1,415 in intra-day trade on Friday, extending their Wednesday gain on the BSE, even as brokerages firm maintain ‘buy’ rating on the stock after the company proposed to acquire IT firm Mindtree.

The stock is 3 per cent away from its 52-week high price of Rs 1,459 that it hit on December 21, 2018, in intra-day trade. It touched an all-time high of Rs 1,470 on February 1, 2018, on the BSE.

The rupee opened 19 paise higher at 68.64 against the US dollar on Friday. The domestic unit on Wednesday recovered by 13 paise to close at 68.83 amid sustained buying by foreign investors in domestic equity markets and lower crude prices.

In its currency themetic report, ICICI Securities noted that the currency will remain strong as most of the headwinds have started to ebb.

The government Friday decided to boycott the Pakistan National Day event to be held at its high commission in New Delhi as Kashmiri separatist leaders were also invited, an official said.

Indian government officials will stay away from the reception scheduled on the eve of Pakistan National Day, which is celebrated on March 23, the official said.

The toll in the explosion at an industrial park in eastern China climbed steeply to 44 on Friday morning as a number of people succumbed to their injuries.

The explosion occurred on Thursday following a fire in a fertilizer factory in a chemical industrial park in Yancheng, Jiangsu province, according to the government of Xiangshui county.

The relationship between India and the US flourished under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an official in the Donald Trump administration has said, adding it expects the ties to improve after the Lok Sabha elections.

The senior official also said the first ever India-US two-plus-two dialogue, held in New Delhi last year, took the relationship forward.

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