Indian equities stood out in August as foreign investors sold stocks in almost every other Asian emerging market, thanks to the nation’s strong corporate earnings performance and its growing appeal as an alternative to China.

Global funds purchased $1.6 billion of Indian shares on a net basis last month through Aug. 30, according to the latest exchange data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s even as they withdrew a combined more than $6 billion from Taiwan, South Korea and Indonesia. With a small $35 million inflow through Aug. 24, Malaysia was the only other exception.

Shares of state-owned oil exploration & production companies, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India surged up to 6 per cent on the BSE in Friday’s intra-day trade after the government hiked price of domestic natural gas to $8.6 per metric million British thermal units (MMBtu). The new price, scheduled to take effect from September 1, marks an increase from the current price of $7.85 mBtu.

Fitch Ratings, moreover, affirmed ONGC's rating at 'BBB-' with a stable outlook. Fitch expected ONGC's upstream Ebitda over FY24-FY27 to improve, driven by increase in oil price assumptions, given lower uncertainty on demand destruction related to energy transition risks.

Edtech giant Byju's and its term loan B lenders have decided to postpone an ongoing disagreement in the US courts until October 06. This extension aims to provide more time to achieve an out-of-court resolution, according to a report by Mint.

The parties are working on reaching a forbearance agreement, and discussions are still ongoing, the court said in its August 24 order, according to the Mint report.

Shares of ITD Cementation India soared 14 per cent to hit a new high of Rs 247.4 on the BSE in Friday’s intra-day trade amid heavy volumes after the company secured a marine contract worth approximately Rs 3,290 crore excluding GST.

The stock surpassed its previous high of Rs 219.75, which it had touched on August 24. As of 9:54 am, the average trading volumes on the counter jumped over four-fold as around 8.2 million shares, which represented 4.4 per cent of ITD's total equity, changed hands on the NSE and BSE.

Indian gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 7.8 per cent in the quarter that ended on June 30, data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Thursday showed.

In the April-June quarter last year, the GDP growth rate was 13.1 per cent. In the previous quarter, that ended on March 31, Indian GDP had recorded a growth rate of 6.1 per cent.

India's Vedanta ran a "covert" lobbying campaign to weaken key environmental regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) said in an article on Thursday.

In January 2021, Vedanta Group Chairman Anil Agarwal told former environment minister Prakash Javadekar the government could add "impetus" to India's economic recovery by allowing mining companies to boost production by up to 50 per cent without having to secure new environmental clearances, the OCCRP said.

Eight absconding terrorists have been arrested here during a special drive by the State Investigation Agency and the Criminal Investigation Department that have started looking for killers and terrorist associates hiding by blending in the society, a police official said on Thursday.

Assisted by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) inputs, State Investigation Agency (SIA) detectives working quietly for months have apprehended the eight terrorists wanted in Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act cases after about three decades, the official said.

Tata Power Renewable Energy Ltd (TPREL) on Thursday said that it has signed a power delivery agreement with Sanyo Special Steel Manufacturing India Pvt Ltd (SSMI) to set up a captive solar plant in Maharashtra's Aachegaon.

"The plant located at Aachegaon, Maharashtra, is to generate 61.875 MUs (million units) of electricity in a year and would supply power to Sanyo Special Steel Manufacturing located within the state," the Tata Power arm said in a statement.

The united Opposition bloc, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), will begin its two-day meeting in Mumbai on Thursday. At the meeting, its third since it started its parleys in Patna two months ago, the bloc will pick members of an 11-member central coordination committee and the location for its secretariat in the national capital. It will also announce the names of its chairperson and convenor and release a logo of the grouping.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge will be the frontrunner for the chairperson’s position, if Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance (UPA), declines to take that role, given her poor health.

Indian exporters of basmati rice are negotiating with global buyers to buy it at a rate of $1,200 per tonne now and adjust the price against future orders, The Economic Times (ET) said in a report on Thursday. They are also reportedly overbilling to take the prices above $1,200 per tonne.

This comes just days after the Centre on Sunday imposed a temporary ban on the export of any basmati rice for less than $1,200 per tonne. The move, which will remain effective till October 15, was to restrict "illegal shipment of white non-basmati rise in the garb of premium basmati rice.

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