In his address to the parliament on the first day of the budget session, President Kovind seemed to lay the ground for a greater thrust on direct benefit transfers. He also alluded to successes garnered by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and GST. 

Gold prices soared by 2.8% on Monday to its highest level in seven years, as investors worried about global economic growth amid rising coronavirus cases outside China. Spot gold was up 1.9% at $1,674.40 per ounce. US gold futures jumped 1.7% to $1,676.80 an ounce. Mirroring gold's gains, silver jumped 2% to $18.83 an ounce, having hit its highest since September at $18.90.

The coronavirus outbreak disrupted the US markets on Monday, just as the global economy was stabilising after the US-China trade war fallout. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank more than 1,000 points on Monday, the drop was the worst for the index in two years and wiped out all its gains so far in 2020. The S&amp;P 500 also 3.4%, while the Nasdaq fell 3.7%.

The current global health scare represents a buying opportunity as&nbsp;India's financial market faces low downside risk from coronavirus' impact on supply chains,&nbsp;Luis Oganes, JP Morgan's head of currencies and emerging market said. Emerging market central banks may cut interest rates further and the dollar will remain strong, he said. "If China's growth declines by half a point or one full point, how much that affects other parts of the world, India is not topping the charts in terms of that beta," he added.

The country's largest gold-financier&nbsp;Muthoot Finance on Friday said it has raised $550 million from International Bond Markets for a 3.5 year tenor at 4.4%.&nbsp;The company had placed $450 million for a 3 year tenor at 6.12% in October 2019. The proceeds of the issue will be used for onward lending.&nbsp;Following a strong order book momentum supported by high quality real money investors, the company was able to tighten pricing by 35 basis points to 4.4%. This comes when NBFC&nbsp;sector is going through severe liquidity crisis as investors turned cautious about funding them.

Sovereign wealth funds are likely to change their investment strategy for Indian infrastructure projects and are expected to use the direct investment route more in the near future, compared to the current trend of investing through funds or joint ventures. As per a report the 100% tax exemption announced for sovereign wealth funds for their investments in infrastructure in the Union Budget 2020, would help increase investments into affordable housing, logistics and warehousing.

Telecom major Vodafone Idea's survival is in serious doubt as the company's ratings have been downgraded by three rating agencies in the span of just two days. India Ratings, Brickwork Ratings and&nbsp;Crisil&nbsp;have downgraded Vodafone Idea's rating on ₹3,500 crore&nbsp;worth of non-convertible debentures. However, Vodafone shares rose as much as&nbsp;59% in last two trading sessions after govt officials said that the company's bank guarantees won't be encashed.

India has been hitting the US 'very hard' on trade for many years with high tariffs, according to President Donald Trump who said he will 'talk business' with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his first visit to the country. "I'm going to India next week and we're talking trade. They've been hitting us very hard for many, many years," Trump said at a 'Keep America Great' rally in Colorado on Thursday. Downplaying the expectation of a trade deal with India during his visit, Trump said the two countries could make a "tremendous" trade deal, but indicated that the talks on this might slow down if he did not get a good deal.

IT major SAP has closed it offices in India as a precautionary measure after&nbsp;two of its employees in Bengaluru were found H1N1 (Swine Flu) positive.&nbsp;The German-based tech company has closed its offices in Bengaluru, Mumbai&nbsp;and Gurugram&nbsp;for extensive sanitation and has asked its employees to work from home from February 20 to 28.&nbsp;

GMR Infrastructure has entered into a strategic partnership with France's Groupe ADP to sell 49% stake in its airports arm for an equity consideration of ₹10,780 crore. The deal calculates the valuation of GMR&nbsp;Airports at ₹22,000 crore. GMR&nbsp;Infrastructure, in a statement, said this money will help deleverage the group further and result in improved cash flows and profitability. The company&nbsp;has over ₹20,000 crore&nbsp;debt.&nbsp;As part of the terms of transaction, GMR will retain management control of the airports business while Groupe ADP will have the customary rights and board representation at GMR&nbsp;Airports ltd.

The government is exploring the option to appoint third-party audit firms to recalculate dues payable by telecom&nbsp;firms&nbsp;after differences emerged in individual calculations made by the government and telcos, the Mint reported.
To ensure Vodafone&nbsp;Idea is not forced to close, the government is also&nbsp;considering to defer non-AGR&nbsp;dues, the Economic Times reported. Out of the total ₹1.47 lakh&nbsp;crore&nbsp;dues, telecom companies' unpaid licence fees amount to ₹22,589 crore, while interest and penalties took the total liability to ₹92,641 crore. Besides licence fees, telecom companies owe ₹55,054 crore in spectrum usage charges, as per estimates of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).&nbsp;
Out of the total unpaid basic licence fee, telecom companies that are operational collectively owe around ₹16,746 crore, according to the estimates prepared by the DoT in July 2019.&nbsp;The unpaid licence fees of Bharti Airtel was assessed at ₹5,528.52 crore&nbsp;and&nbsp;Vodafone Idea ₹6,870.69 crore.
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Airtel chief Sunil Bharti Mittal met telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad amid the massive payments crisis looming over telcos, over the Supreme Court's order on Adjusted Gross Revenues.
Calling the AGR issue an unprecedented crisis for the telecom industry, Mittal said that Airtel is fully committed to comply with the top court's order.
Airtel chief Sunil Bharti Mittal and Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of Vodafone Idea, head the two telcos that together serve more than 580 million customers in India. The Supreme Court on Friday came down heavily on both companies over non-payment of AGR&nbsp;dues of Rs 1.47 lakh crore.

Retail stock broker,&nbsp;Zerodha, has applied for an asset management company license.&nbsp;Founder and CEO&nbsp;Nithin Kamath&nbsp;said, the move was an effort to grow the capital market participation from the current 1.5 crores and address those who currently don't invest, mostly millenials. He added that&nbsp;mutual fund as a product needs to be reimagined.&nbsp;&nbsp;Based in Bengaluru, Zerodha is India's largest retail stock broker by active clients to offer the lowest and cheapest brokerage rates for futures and options, commodity trading, equity and mutual funds.&nbsp;Started in August 2010, it currently has 1.5 million active clients.
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Equity markets closed in the red on Thursday following dull Asian markets and foreign fund outflows. The Sensex&nbsp;fell 152.88 points or 0.37% to end the session at 41,170.12. The Nifty closed trading at 12,080.85, down 45.05 points.
IT, FMCG&nbsp;and Pharma&nbsp;stocks dragged the benchmark indices&nbsp;down, while metal, bank and auto stocks were in green.&nbsp;
Cipla, Asian paints, Hindustan Unilever, TCS and Tech Mahindra&nbsp;were the top Nifty losers. IndusInd&nbsp;Bank, Zee&nbsp;Ltd, Tata&nbsp;Steel, SBI&nbsp;and Power Grid were the top gainers.
The India rupee was down 8 paise&nbsp;at 71.65 against the US dollar.
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Hinduja Group has entered the race to invest in Yes Bank as part of a consortium&nbsp;with Cerberus and JC Flowers to buy a minority stake of up to 10% in the bank, CNBC&nbsp;tv18 reported on Thursday.
However, Hinduja-owned IndusInd Bank is not involved in the transaction, say reports.&nbsp;
Investors have reportedly reached out to the&nbsp;RBI,&nbsp;to seek dispensation on the pricing of the deal as the company thinks valuation should to be much lower than the current market price.&nbsp;
Since the Hinduja group owns IndusInd Bank, the RBI rules restrict it to own upto 10% stake in another bank.

Vodafone Idea on Thursday paid ₹1,000 crore&nbsp;to the&nbsp;Telecom Department towards statutory dues. The telco&nbsp;had paid ₹2,500 crore&nbsp;to the DoT&nbsp;earlier this week and had promised to make a further ₹1,000 crore&nbsp;payment by Friday.&nbsp;Vodafone&nbsp;Idea owes a total of ₹53,000 crore&nbsp;to the DoT&nbsp;in AGR&nbsp;dues.

The initial public offering of SBI Cards and Payment will open on March 2, according to its prospectus. The credit card arm of State Bank of India plans to issue new shares worth ₹500 crore and will offer up to 130.5 million shares for sale, the prospectus, dated February 18, mentioned. The bidding process will close on March 5.&nbsp;In grey markets,&nbsp;SBI&nbsp;cards' stock is already trading at 40% premium to its expected price of around ₹700.

Axis Bank is in talks to acquire more than 20% stake in Max Life Insurance through fresh issue of equity, the Economic Times reported on Thursday, citing multiple sources. The deal is aimed at building a strategic and long-term partnership with Axis Bank which is also Max Life&rsquo;s largest source of revenue at 54%, according to the report. Axis Bank, which owns a shade over 2% in Max Life, will infuse more than&nbsp;₹2,000 crore in the latter.&nbsp;

State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) said its investments have not been affected due to slowdown in the country's economy. "Our investments are long-term and it takes long for them to yield profits but our fundamentals are very strong both in oil and natural gas and we are progressing well,"&nbsp;ONGC&nbsp;Chairman and Managing Director Shashi Shanker said.&nbsp;ONGC has always been a profit making company with government stake of 62% and it has made large-scale foreign investments in Middle East, different countries of Africa and even in Venezuela.

Growth of consumer durables segment is expected to pick up in the last quarter taking the sector's expansion in 2019-20 to 15%, an industry official said on Wednesday. The expert also said that the economic slowdown has not affected the sector, which grew by 10% in the first three quarters of 2019-20, as people continue to spend on consumer products like ACs, refrigerators, washing machines and other appliances.
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Slowing growth and weak consumer sentiment will continue to weigh on auto sales and the marginal improvement seen in the December quarter driven by festive discounts is unlikely to sustain, Fitch said in a report, without stating when the volumes will begin to pick up or how long the slump will persist. Automakers could also face production disruptions if the novel coronavirus outbreak in China leads to a prolonged halt in supply of required auto components.
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President's speech lays ground for Interim Budget

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