Key indices on Thursday gained strength after the federal reserve hiked rates as widely expected.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 138.34 points at 33,274.52 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 49.40 points to 10,204.70.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) may impose trading restrictions on shares of companies that are undergoing insolvency proceedings. The move, which is also a demand by industry players, is aimed at reducing volatility in stock prices and curbing manipulation or misuse of price-sensitive information.

Sources said the market regulator would lay down a compliance framework for listed companies undergoing insolvency resolution. The announcement will likely be made at Sebi’s board meeting next week.

The State Bank of India-led consortium of lenders called for a second round of bidding for Essar Steel on Wednesday. All the six companies that had submitted expressions of interest (EoIs) earlier have to submit their bids by April 2.

Lenders rejected bids by Numetal and ArcelorMittal after both companies failed the legal eligibility test. The legal advisors cited one of the clauses of Section 29A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) for rejecting the bids.

Amazon.com became the second most valuable publicly listed US company on Tuesday, surpassing Google parent Alphabet Inc for the first time.

Amazon shares finished up 2.69 percent at $1,586.51, for a market capitalisation of $768 billion, underscoring Wall Street's confidence in its relentless expansion into cloud computing, groceries and other new businesses.

Indian companies are most concerned about increasing protectionism around the world, a report said on Wednesday.

"The survey data shows that almost nine of 10 businesses in India feel that governments are turning increasingly protectionist, leading to a rise in the cost of doing international business, altering trade routes and raising hurdles to obtain trade finance," said the HSBC report "Navigator: Now, next and how for business".

India's Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) said on Wednesday its bondholders had approved their asset-sale plan, that includes the sale of certain assets to upstart rival Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.

Holders of the debt-laden telecom operator's $300 million bonds have also approved the monetisation of other real-estate assets, RCom said in a statement.

Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has alleged that the Congress had liaised with data analytics company Cambridge Analytica, which is in the eye of the storm over misuse of data sourced from Facebook.

Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has alleged that the Congress had liaised with data analytics company Cambridge Analytica, which is in the eye of the storm over misuse of data sourced from Facebook.

At least 26 people were killed and several others wounded in an explosion in Afghanistan capital Kabul on Wednesday.

The explosion took place as the Afghan capital celebrated the Nawruz holiday marking the start of the Persian new year.

According to ToloNews, the blast took place at the Kart-e-Char area in PD3, near Ali Abad hospital and Kabul University.

The country’s top oil marketing company, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), is slated to face more delay in getting land from the Odisha government for putting up different units of its planned petrochemical complex at Paradip.

IOC, in February last year, had asked for 2,290 acres of additional land to commission the petrochemical units. The oil major preferred to have land contiguous to its 15-million-tonne-per-annum crude oil refinery at Paradip.

The first and the largest tender for procuring 10 million prepaid meters, saw 12 bidders submitting interest for participating in the reverse bidding.

However, the leading three large players in the industry – Landis Gyr India, Secure Meters and HPL India have not joined the race, citing regulatory and security concerns.

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