The World Health Organization (WHO) has sounded the alarm over a global spike in Covid-19 cases, despite reduced testing and several weeks of declining infections.

WHO said cases are especially on the rise in parts of Asia, urging for vaccination coverage to be extended and caution to be exercised in lifting pandemic response measures, Xinhua news agency reported.

Shares of Bharat Dynamics (BDL) hit a new high at Rs 597 on rallying 8 per cent on the BSE in Thursday’s intra-day trade on the back of heavy volumes. The stock of the state-owned defence company traded higher for the eight straight day, and has soared 34 per cent during this period.

At 02:02 pm; the stock was up 6 per cent at Rs 589, as compared to a 2 per cent rise on the S&P BSE Sensex. The trading volume at the counter jumped over three-fold with a combined 2.3 million equity shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE.

Shares of Titan Company hit a record high of Rs 2,718.65, on rallying 5 per cent on the BSE in Thursday’s intra-day trade on expectations of strong earnings growth. The stock of the Tata Group Company engaged in jewellery and watch business has surpassed its previous high of Rs 2,687.30 touched on January 7, 2022.

Titan Company is among the top players in ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala & his family’s portfolio with holding value of over Rs 12,000 crore.

Shares of Nxtdigital (NDL) surged 17 per cent to Rs 486.20 on the BSE in Thursday’s intra-day trade after its board accorded an in-principle approval for merger of Hinduja Leyland Finance (HLFL), into the company.

NDL is the media vertical of the global Hinduja Group. The media and communications company is India’s premier integrated Digital Delivery Platforms Company - delivering services via satellite, digital cable and broadband.

India's Reliance Industries Ltd, operator of the world's biggest refining complex, may avoid buying Russian fuels for its plants following Western sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, a senior company official said.

"Even if we can source some of the feeds (from Russia), probably we will be out of it because of the sanctions," Rajesh Rawat, senior vice president and business head cracker, told an industry event on Wednesday.

Realty firm Godrej Properties Ltd on Thursday said it has sold 855 homes worth Rs 1,650 crore within a year of the launch of its project Godrej Woods in Noida.

This includes sales of Rs 509 crore in March 2021 and Rs 1,141 crore so far in FY22, the company said in a statement.

The project is located in Noida - Sector 43.

Paytm, the Indian digital payments startup whose stock has slumped 71% since its November market debut, had its price target reduced further by an Macquarie Capital Securities (India) Pvt. analyst who was early to predict the company’s market troubles.

Macquarie’s Suresh Ganapathy cut his price estimate to 450 rupees ($5.90) from 700 rupees, citing lower valuations for fintech companies globally. He didn’t change his earnings or revenue estimates for Paytm, which he rates underperform. The stock rose to 634.05 rupees on Wednesday.

The rupee spurted by 41 paise to close at a nearly two-week high against the US dollar on Wednesday, tracking positive domestic equities and Asian currencies ahead of the US Federal Reserve's decision on interest rate hike.

FII inflows into capital markets and crude oil prices retreating to USD 99 per barrel level boosted the rupee sentiment, forex traders said.

Large oil importers like India and Thailand will be the most affected among Asia-Pacific countries by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, S&P Global Ratings has said.

S&P estimates the Indian economy to grow 7.8 per cent in the next fiscal year beginning April 1, 2022. Besides, the economy is expected to grow 6 per cent and 6.5 per cent in 2023-24 and 2024-25, respectively.

It projected inflation at 5.4 per cent in the current fiscal year.

India logged 2,876 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,29,98,938, while the active cases dipped to 32,811, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Tuesday.

The death toll climbed to 5,16,072 with 98 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

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