Business

Many opposition leaders, including former Congress President Rahul Gandhi have been demanding that PPE be exempted from GST.

The 21-lockdown imposed by the government with effect from March 25 to fight coronavirus seems to have adversely impacted the transactions through UPI.

Equity benchmark Sensex plunged over 1,000 points in opening trade on Tuesday tracking heavy losses in banking, energy and IT stocks amid volatility in global market as international crude oil prices went into a tailspin overnight.

The crash in crude futures prices at Cushing won't necessarily translate into a crash in prices at the gas pump.

Harvesting is at peak in key wheat-growing states of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh and is likely to be completed in the current month, the ministry said.

On March 27, the apex bank had announced a three-month moratorium on payment of all installments of term loans, due between March 1, 2020 and May 31, 2020.

According to the data, the net absorption of office space declined to 73,98,041 sq ft during the first three months of this year from 1,16,55,242 sq ft in the corresponding period of the last year.

The development comes after NBFCs and MFIs made repeated requests to the government seeking permission to function.

The IMF on Tuesday projected a GDP growth of 1.9 per cent for India in 2020. With this subdued forecast, India is likely to record its worst growth performance since the 1991 liberalisation.

Forex traders said the weakness in the rupee was largely due to the strengthening of the US Dollar as investors fled to safe-haven Greenback amid weakening risk appetite in the markets.

A Bank of America Securities report said the Centre may soon announce another fiscal package which may be almost similar to the Rs 1.75 lakh crore stimulus unveiled last month.

India's petroleum product consumption fell 17.79 per cent to 16.08 million tonnes in March as diesel, petrol and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) demand fell, according to official data released on Thursday.

Spot gold rose 0.1% to $1,647.94 per ounce by 0312 GMT, having hit a four-week high of $1,671.40 on Tuesday. U.S. gold futures were flat at $1,683.40 per ounce.

Icra said the nationwide lockdown announced to contain the coronavirus outbreak has impacted industries and their operations have come to a standstill.

Moody's Investor Service last month also slashed its estimate for India's GDP growth during 2020 calendar year to 2.5 per cent and said that coronavirus outbreak will cause unprecedented shock to the global economy.

Forex traders said weak opening in domestic equities dragged the local unit amid mounting fears of a coronavirus-led economic slowdown.