Gold rose nearly 1 per cent on Monday after suffering its largest daily fall in nearly seven years, as expectations grew for policy easing by the US Federal Reserve and other central banks to help boost the coronavirus-hit global economy.

Spot gold was up 0.4 per cent at $1,591.84 an ounce by 1:40 p.m. EST (1840 GMT), and US gold futures settled 1.8 per cent higher at $1,594.80.

Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines are actively weighing the option to bid for Air India and a decision to submit an expression of interest (EoI) could be taken soon.

Sources aware of the development said the board of Tata Sons, the holding company of the group, would meet later this week and possibly take up the Air India matter for approval.

Mastercard is banking big on its co-branded card in partnership with Zomato and RBL, in a bid to tap the potential of online food delivery market, which has been expanding beyond big cities.

The ‘Edition Cards’ will offer a host of benefits for cardholders every time they use Zomato or spend online and offline. The co-branded card, which comes in two variants — Edition and Edition Classic, will offer benefits such as Zomato Gold membership, cash back as well as airport lounge access.

India cricket team skipper Virat Kohli had a fiery exchange with a journalist who asked him to tone down his aggression following team's crushing defeat in the second and final Test against New Zealand cricket team at the Hagley Oval.

India lost the Christchurch Test by seven wickets on Monday, thus suffering from their first-ever whitewash under Kohli and in the post-match presser, the Indian skipper was asked about his on-field antics during the match which didn't go down too well with the 31-year-old cricketer.

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on March 4 a plea seeking lodging of FIRs against politicians and others for their purported hate speeches which allegedly led to recent violence in Delhi.

The plea filed by some riot victims was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, which said it would be heard on Wednesday.

At least Rs 10.52 trillion worth of corporate loans — around 16 per cent of the system-level corporate debt — is likely to default over the next three years due to prolonged slowdown in the economy. Further, around 25 per cent of the vulnerable debt is likely to turn delinquent, resulting in additional Rs 2.54 trillion of delinquent debt, according to a recent report by India Ratings & Research. This is likely to result in incremental delinquencies to the extent of 4 per cent of the system-level corporate debt, the report adds.

Ashok Leyland reported a 47 per cent drop in the total medium and heavy commercial vehicle (M&HCV) domestic sales during the month of February 2020 at 6,745 units as against 12,621 units, a year ago.

The drop came due to the truck business, which dropped by 58 per cent to 4,706 units from 11,117 units, while domestic bus sales rose by 36 per cent to 2,039 units from 1.504 units.

Shares of Bajaj Auto slipped 4 per cent to Rs 2,785 on the BSE on Monday after the company reported a 10 per cent year on year (YoY) drop in total auto sales at 354,913 units for the month of February 2020.

The two-wheeler maker missed analysts' expectations by a decent margin. Nirmal Bang Equities, for instance, had expected total auto sales of 382,844 units, while Emkay Global Financial Services had expected total sales of 374,000 units for the month.

Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection crossed the Rs 1-trillion-mark for the fourth month in a row in February at Rs 1.05 trillion. The GST collection, which grew 8.3 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in the month, was a tad lower than Rs 1.10 trillion mopped up in the previous month.

GST collection had grown 8.1 per cent y-o-y in January. The mop-up could have been much higher, but tax on imports fell 2 per cent y-o-y. However, experts ruled out the impact of the coronavirus outbreak in China on imports since these are contracted three months in advance.

Shares of Tata Power hit an over 13-year low of Rs 45.35, down 3 per cent, on the BSE in an otherwise firm market on Monday. Thr stock has fallen 13 per cent in the past week on the back of heavy volumes after concerns emerged that the electric utilities firm may snap power lines to five states beginning March if they don't agree to tariff increases. The stock of the Tata Group Company was trading at its lowest level since July 28, 2006.

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