Lingering concerns over the passage of GST Bill in the ongoing Parliament’s winter session and factors such as interest rate hike worries by the US Federal Reserve next week, falling commodity prices, funds outflow by foreign institutional investors and bleak global cues dragged the key benchmark indices over 2 per cent down for the week ended December 11. This week Sensex and Nifty fell 593.68 points and 171.45 points to 25,044.43 and 7,610.45, respectively.

During the week, Cairn India (down 9.80 per cent), Punjab National Bank (down 8.60 per cent), Vedanta (down 8.50 per cent), Coal India (down 8.20 per cent) and YES Bank (down 7.60 per cent) slid the most in the Nifty pack.

A triple truck bomb attack claimed by Islamic State in northeastern Syria killed at least 50 people and wounded 80 others, a spokesman for the Kurdish militia that controls the area said on Friday.

The town in the northeastern province of Hasaka is controlled by the Kurdish YPG militia, which has been battling Islamic State with the support of US-led air strikes. Kurdish fighters have advanced against the militants in the last few weeks in Hasaka, notably taking over the town of al Houl backed up by a US-backed rebel alliance that includes the YPG.

Opposition parties have criticised the Pakistan government over the joint statement with India, alleging that it heavily favoured New Delhi at the cost of Islamabad's stance on the Kashmir issue.

The opposition assault was led by Shireen Mazari of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday in parliament as even a key coalition partner expressed reservations over the outcome of talks between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Pakistan's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz at the Heart of Asia conference here, the Dawn reported. "While the statement categorically addressed Indian concerns over the Mumbai trial, what about Samjhauta Express case and Kashmir cause which the government recently took up at the United Nations and kept on boasting about taking such a bold stand," Mazari said in the National Assembly.

Jaipuria Group plans to invest nearly Rs 500 crore in increasing its footprint in the education space over the next 5-7 years.

Shishir Jaipuria-led Jaipuria Group also has business interests in textile industry.

Domestic passenger car sales rose 10.39 per cent to 1,73,111 units in November from 1,56,811 units in the same month a year ago.

Motorcycle sales rose 1.58 per cent to 8,66,705 units last month from 8,53,257 units a year ago, according to the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam).

Falling for the second straight day, gold prices today further eased by Rs 90 to Rs 25,710 per ten grams at the bullion market due to subdued demand from jewellers amid weak global cues.

Silver also dropped by Rs 250 to Rs 34,050 per kg hit by lack of buying support from industrial units and coin makers.

'Self-styled' loyalists of 10, Janpath convinced Sonia Gandhi that it would be better to back P V Narasimsha Rao in 1991 as Prime Minister over him as the "Gandhi family was not about to let someone with independent mind" to get the top post, Sharad Pawar has claimed.

The loyalists including the late Arjun Singh, himself an aspirant for the prime minister's post played a "clever trick" to convince Sonia Gandhi in the decision to choose Rao over Pawar, says the NCP President, who became Defence Minister in Rao's cabinet.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has said that no new diesel vehicles will be allowed to be registered in New Delhi. The move comes soon after it was declared that pollution levels in the Capital are much above acceptable levels.

The NGT has also directed the central and state government against buying any new diesel vehicles for the department.

Benchmark indices are trading in tight range with a negative bias ahead of the October industrial production data, which is scheduled to be released later today. The downside is on the back of selling pressure witnessed in capital goods, realty and banking shares.

At 11:30am, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 100 points at 25,145 and the Nifty50 was down 34 points at 7,649.

After showing consistency in performance in the last couple of quarters, Infosys, India’s second largest information technology services company, has said it was back on growth track.

The Bengaluru-based firm also said while the present growth was primarily driven by improving the operational efficiency, the growth would be more pronounced once the results of the new initiatives it had taken started kicking in.

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