Shares of Bata India soared 5 per cent to its fresh 52-week high of Rs 1754.80 on the BSE in intra-day session on Thursday following the footwear maker's June quarter results. Bata India on Wednesday, post-market hours, reported a narrowing of loss to Rs 69.5 crore in the April-June quarter (Q1) compared with Rs 101 crore net loss in the corresponding quarter last year.

The firm’s operating revenue grew 98 per cent to Rs 267 crore on a low base of Rs 135 crore that it has reported in the year-ago period.

In one of the biggest land deals in the country in the last couple of years, Canada's Brookfield has bought a 30 acre land parcel in Navi Mumbai, a satellite town of Mumbai, for Rs 600 crore from K Raheja Corp, sources said.

Brookfield plans to build a data centre on the plot.

The global coronavirus caseload has topped 202.6 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 4.32 million and vaccinations soared to over 4.52 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Thursday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload, death toll stood and vaccination tally stood at 204,626,055, 4,323,778 and 4,527,816,903, respectively.

Cybercriminals have breached Accenture in an apparent ransomware attack but the global consulting giant says the incident was immediately contained with no impact on it or its systems.

The LockBit ransomware gang announced the attack Tuesday night on its dark web leak site, setting a deadline of Thursday evening for payment.

India reported 38,353 fresh COVID-19 cases, 36% higher than 28,204 cases reported yesterday. With this, the total tally of COVID-19 cases in India has risen to 3,20,36,511. The country also reported 497 deaths, taking the cumulative death count to 4,29,179.

The active cases have declined to 3,86,351, the lowest in 140 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday. The active cases comprise 1.21% of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020. The COVID-19 recovery rate stands 97.45%, the Health Ministry said. A total of 40,013 patients recovered in the last 24 hours.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday attacked the Modi government over the issue of high prices of cooking gas and said if the government is honest about its Ujjwala scheme it should give subsidy to the poor and reduce inflation.

Her attack on the government came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Ujjwala 2.0 -- the second phase of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) -- by virtually presenting free LPG connections to some beneficiaries in Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh, where assembly elections are scheduled early next year.

Shares of recently listed healthcare facilities company Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) surged over 10 per cent to Rs 1,300 on the BSE in the intra-day trade on Wednesday after the company reported a strong 57 per cent growth in consolidated profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 92.0 crore for the quarter ended June 2021 (Q1FY22) on a sequential basis.

Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) was up 41 per cent quarter on quarter (QoQ) at Rs 147.9 crore, while margins improved 200 basis points (bps) to 31.0 per cent in Q1FY22 from 29.0 per cent in Q4FY21.Consolidated revenue grew 31.6 per cent QoQ at Rs 477.50 crore from Rs 362.70 crore in previous quarter.

India's drug regulator has given approval for a study to be conducted by the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore on mixing of COVID-19 vaccines Covaxin and Covishield, official sources said on Wednesday.

An expert panel of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) on July 29 had recommended granting permission for conducting the study.

Shares of Hinduja Global Solutions were locked in the upper circuit of 5 per cent at Rs 3,397.60, also its new record high on the BSE on Wednesday, rising 10 per cent in the past two trading days in an otherwise weak market after the company announced divestment of its healthcare services business to funds affiliated with Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA) for an enterprise value of US$ 1,200 million.

In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.45 per cent or 244 points at 54,311 at 10:38 am.

API Holdings Pvt., owner of India’s largest online pharmacy PharmEasy, is considering a Mumbai initial public offering that could raise as much as $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company, backed by TPG and Temasek Holdings Pte, is working with advisers on a potential offering that could take place by March 2022, the people said.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.