As the markets have largely taken to a downward trend amid high bond yields in the US, small and mid-cap stocks continue to buck the bearish trend. An ICICI Securities report said that although the Nifty50 is down around 2 per cent from its recent peak, there is no sign of any sharp increase in risk aversion. While the benchmark NIFTY50 index is down 2 per cent from the recent peak of 15,300, there is no sign of any sharp increase in risk aversion given the moderate increase in fear index (VIX at 25) and outperformance of strategies such as high beta (up 4 per cent), CPSE (9 per cent), smallcaps (5 per cent), midcaps (3 per cent) and dividend yield (2 per cent) strategies continuing to outperform, it said.
Around half of the 40 candidates announced in the Congress first list for the Assam Assembly polls are fresh faces, while 15 per cent of them are women and five per cent Muslim nominees. The main opposition party late on Saturday night released the first list of 40 candidates for the 47 Assembly constituencies that are going to the polls in Assam in the first phase on March 27. According to the list, announced by Congress Central Election Committee in-charge and party General Secretary Mukul Wasnik, six women - Sibamoni Bora (Batadroba), Roselina Tirkey (Serupathar), Bismita Gogoi (Khumtai), Pallabi Gogoi (Teok), Angkita Dutta (Amguri) and Pranatee Phukan (Naharkatia) and two Muslim candidates - Mohammad Nurul Huda (Rupohihat) and Rakibul Hussain (Samaguri) - were given party tickets.
Audit firm Deloitte PLT will pay Malaysia s government $80 million to resolve all claims related to its auditing of accounts of scandal-linked state fund 1MDB and its unit SRC International from 2011 to 2014, the finance ministry said on Wednesday.
Deloitte has been under scrutiny for its role in auditing the financial statements of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state fund at the centre of a globe-spanning corruption scandal. Malaysian and U.S. authorities say at least $4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB between 2009 and 2014 by high-level officials of the fund and their associates. The successful out-of-court settlement with Deloitte will expedite the payment of monies to fulfill 1MDB and SRC s outstanding obligations, which would otherwise be delayed by potentially protracted and costly court battles, the ministry said in a statement.
The government has room to cut excise duty on petrol and diesel by up to Rs 8.5 per litre without impacting its target for revenue from the tax on the two fuels, analysts said. Petrol and diesel prices hover at a historic high following a relentless increase in rates over the past nine months. There have been calls by opposition parties as well as sections of society to the government to reduce excise duty to ease consumer pain. We estimate excise duty on auto fuels in FY22 (April 2021 to March 2022), if it is not cut, at Rs 4.35 lakh crore versus budget estimate of Rs 3.2 lakh crore.
Read more about DMK s Stalin accuses BJP of siding with corrupt AIADMK, slams Amit Shah on Business Standard. Further, Stalin said seat-sharing talks in the DMK-led alliance have commenced from Sunday while the party manifesto was also getting ready