BSP supremo Mayawati on Friday mocked Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav's assertion that he wanted her to become the prime minister and wondered how someone who could not fulfil his own dream of becoming the chief minister will manage to realise the aspirations of others.

Reacting to Yadav's statement that he wanted her to become the prime minister and that the SP had forged an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls for this, Mayawati, in a tweet in Hindi, said, "When the SP chief could not fulfil his own dream of becoming the chief minister (of Uttar Pradesh) even after securing the votes of Muslims and Yadavs and forming an alliance with several parties, how can he fulfil the dream of others to become the prime minister."

The global coronavirus caseload has topped 512.5 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 6.23 million and vaccinations to over 11.33 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Friday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and the death toll stood at 512,225,941 and 6,230,957, respectively, while the total number of vaccine doses administered increased to 11,334,817,928.

Shares of Varroc Engineering froze 20 per cent upper circuit at Rs 494.60 and hit 52-week high on the BSE. The spike comes after the company signed a Securities Purchase Agreement (SPA) with Compagnie Plastic Omnium SE of France for divestment of 4-wheeler lighting business of the company in US and Europe.

The stock of auto components and equipments maker surpassed its previous high of Rs 458.30 that it had touched on January 14, 2022. Till 09:24 AM; a combined 570,000 equity shares changed hands with 1.32 million shares as pending buy orders on the NSE and BSE.

Ever since the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) announced launching the initial public offering (IPO), 65 million LIC policyholders have shown interest to get the much-touted share of the largest insurance company in the country, an official said. Of them 12 million have dematerialised accounts, the official added.

The LIC has set a price band of Rs 902-Rs 949 per equity share. The government intends to raise Rs 21,000 crore through the issue.

The price of 10 grams of 24 carat gold on Friday fell by Rs 490 to Rs 52,370, while the price of 1 kg of silver went down by Rs 1,200 with the precious metal selling at Rs 63,800 for the day.

The price of 10 grams of 24 carat gold in Delhi and Mumbai is at par with the price of 10 grams of 24 carat gold in Bengluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad i.e., Rs 52,370.

Brokerage house Motilal Oswal Financial Services on Thursday reported a 35 per cent fall in net income at Rs 300 crore in the three months to March, even though its revenue grew by 21 per cent to Rs 1,100 crore.

The company had posted a net income of Rs 461 crore in the year-ago period.

For the full year, the company, which also has a home loan arm, reported a 33 per cent uptick in revenue at Rs 4,051 crore and earned a net income of Rs 1,310 crore, which is a growth of 4 per cent.

Private sector insurer SBI Life Insurance reported a 26 per cent jump in net profit in the January-March quarter (Q4FY22), aided by premium growth. The insurer reported a net profit of Rs 672 crore in the quarter compared to Rs 532.38 crore in the year-ago period, beating street estimates.

Its premiums increased by 12 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 17,434 crore, with the first year premium growing by 5.3 per cent. Renewal and single premium of the insurer grew by 14.6 per cent and 11.2 per cent, respectively, in the same period.

India on Thursday reported 3,303 fresh COVID-19 cases that took its tally to 4,30,68,799, while the active cases increased to 16,980, according to Union health ministry data.

The daily cases crossed the 3,000-mark after 46 days.

The death toll due to COVID-19 climbed to 5,23,693 with 39 more fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.

Shares of Poona Dal & Oil Industries hit a record high of Rs 103.15 and were locked at the 10 per cent upper circuit on the BSE in Thursday’s intra-day trade on the back of heavy volumes. In the past four trading days, the stock of the edible oil company has zoomed 86 per cent from a level of Rs 55.60 on Friday, April 22, 2022.

Till 10:35 AM; around 76,000 shares had changed hands and there were pending buy orders for 30,619 shares on the BSE, the exchange data shows.

Shares of Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd jumped nearly 8 per cent in morning trade on Thursday, after the company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 154.5 crore for the last fiscal.

The stock gained 6.17 per cent to Rs 392.60 on the BSE.

At the NSE, it rallied 7.66 per cent to Rs 398.20.

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