Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar has sought more time to reconsider his decision to step down as party chief, senior NCP leader Praful Patel said on Friday.

Patel and senior party leaders met Pawar at his Silver Oak residence in south Mumbai after a committee formed to choose his successor rejected his decision to step down as NCP chief.

Consumers can expect steep discounts on smartphones as brands, e-commerce platforms and major retailers prepare to roll out various schemes to clear out inventory accumulated in the first quarter of 2023, when sales fell by a record-breaking 16-20 per cent year-on-year (YoY), said an Economic Times (ET) report.

Companies are also trying to generate demand at a time when sales of entry-level and mid-range smartphone sales have been slow, said market trackers.

Chartered Accountants (CA), Company Secretaries (CS) and cost and works accountants are concerned about the new regulation that would subject them to the strict anti-money laundering law if they enter into financial transactions on behalf of their clients, a report in the Economic Times (ET) said.

Chartered accountants stated that the new rule would increase the risk of their work.

Shares of non-banking financial company (NBFC) Manappuram Finance extended this week’s losses, slumping 14 per cent on Friday to an intra-day low of Rs 102.60 on the BSE as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) froze Rs 143 crore worth of assets of the firm’s MD and CEO V P Nandakumar in an ongoing money laundering investigation.

With today’s fall, the stock has lost 21 per cent since Wednesday, May 3 when the ED had first began searches at the company’s premises.

Adani Enterprises Ltd, on Thursday, reported a 137.5 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit in the quarter ended March 31, to Rs 722.48 crore from Rs 304.32 crore in the same quarter in 2021-22 (FY22). The company's board recommended a dividend of Rs 1.2 per share.

"The Board has recommended a dividend of Rs 1.20 (@ 120 per cent) per equity share of the face value of Rs 1 each fully paid up for the Financial Year 2022- 23, subject to approval by shareholders of the Company," the company said.

Gold price rose Rs 540 in Friday's early trade with 10 grams of the yellow metal (24-carat) trading at Rs 62,180, according to the GoodReturns website. Silver price jumped Rs 300 with 1 kg of the precious metal selling at Rs 77,100.

The price of ten grams of 22-carat gold rose Rs 500, with 10-grams of the yellow metal trading at Rs 57,000.

Country's largest IT firm, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is working to build its own ChatGPT-type tool, The Economic Times (ET) has reported. Chief operating officer of the company, N Ganapathy Subramaniam said that TCS will use it for enterprise code generation.

The development work has begun only recently and TCS is looking to collect large amounts of internal code, data, and resources. TCS already maintains a large repository of such data.

Shares of ABB India gained 4 per cent to hit a new high of Rs 3,606.35 in Thursday’s intra-day trade, after the company recorded highest-ever order growth in the January-March quarter (Q1CY23) in last 5 years and 5 quarters.

Thus far in calendar year 2023 (CY23), the stock outperformed market as it surged 34 per cent, as against 0.22 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

ACC, FSN E-Commerce Ventures (Nykaa), HDFC Asset Management (HDFC AMC), Muthoot Finance and Indus Towers are likely to get removed from the Nifty 100 index—an index of 100 large listed firms. Meanwhile, Jindal Steel and Power, Punjab National Bank, TVS Motor, Tube Investments and Zydus Lifesciences are expected to get added to the index. Union Bank of India is also a likely candidate for addition.

Interestingly, 8 Nifty 100 constituents are in the deletion zone.

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The policy offers several features that are designed to meet the needs of policyholders.

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