US stocks extended losses and the S&P 500 hit a session low in Friday afternoon trading after Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said the US central bank will likely need to keep raising interest rates to keep inflation under control.

In a speech in Chicago on the US economic outlook, Powell said the labour market appeared close to full employment. It was his first speech on the economic outlook since taking over as chairman on Feb. 5.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday hit out at the Opposition parties, saying the strength of BJP is affecting them and they are unable to digest that a person born into a backward family is serving the nation.

Addressing the party workers on Bharatiya Janata Party's 38th foundation day, Modi gave a clarion call to party cadres to keep working for the nation and never get agitated by negativity of "vested interest groups".

Defending champion Sathish Sivalingam (77kg) claimed India's third gold medal in the Commonwealth Games today, coming out tops comfortably despite having given up podium hopes after his injured thighs made even routine things like sitting painful.

The 25-year-old Indian lifted a total 317kg (114kg+173kg) and was so ahead of the competition that he forfeited his final clean and jerk lift.

After merger of associate banks with itself in 2017-18, State Bank of India (SBI) is scaling down the pace of branch opening. It will open about 250 branches annually, as against the earlier 750-800 by the group.

Asked about the impact of the shift towards digital banking, using technology, SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar said physical contact points will still be needed because India is a vast country. Only, the outlets are becoming smaller.

The benchmark Nifty on Friday ended the week with 2.15 per cent gains, the most since the week ended July 14, 2017. Signs of easing trade tensions between the US and China, coupled with lowering of inflation forecast by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), had buoyed investor sentiment.

However, global stock markets edged downwards on Friday after US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose an extra $100 billion in tariffs on China exacerbated fears of a more serious trade dispute, while the dollar paused ahead of crucial US payrolls data.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is set to intensify its drive against individuals who misuse unpublished price-sensitive information (UPSI) to make illicit gains from the stock market.

Trading based on UPSI is among the most serious offences in the stock market. Sebi has stepped up on improving its surveillance mechanism after prescient messages, related to the financial results of several blue-chip companies, including Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and Tata Motors, were being circulated on WhatsApp.

Even after the Supreme Court extended the deadline to link Aadhaar with various services, including existing bank accounts, mutual funds and insurance policies, Aadhaar or Aadhaar enrolment number remains mandatory for opening a new bank account. At the same time, there are consumer complaints citing the demand for Aadhaar at points of sale of other financial products such as insurance policies and mutual funds.

Who will win India’s promising market for internet commerce? A company with deep pockets and an almost limitless capacity to bear losses. Amazon.com Inc. fits the bill. Its investors don’t bat an eyelid when the firm announces large amounts of cash burn every other year.

It seemed like the US company had met its match when SoftBank Group Corp invested $2.5 billion in Flipkart last year. Led by maverick tycoon Masayoshi Son, SoftBank never seems to be short of funds or the appetite for taking wild risks.

Among the German Luxury car manufacturers, Mercedes-Benz has perhaps the strongest hold in the Indian subcontinent. Having recently announced their sales for 2017-18 and reasserting their leadership in the country having sold as many as 16,236 cars. The company, which had sold 13,259 units in 2016-17, also said in the January-March period it sold 4,556 units as against 3,650 units in the year-ago period, up 24.8 per cent.

Global financial messaging cooperative Swift today said Icici Bank has become its first Indian client to go live with an improved cross-border payments service. The announcement of the service, which Swift claimed as being more transparent, comes weeks after the discovery of one of the largest banking frauds to be detected in Indian history, the Rs 12,900-crore Nirav Modi scam at the Punjab National Bank (PNB).

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