There are around 4,000 coronavirus variants around the world prompting vaccine manufacturers, including Pfizer Inc and AstraZeneca, to try to improve their shots, a British minister said.

Thousands of variants of the type of coronavirus that causes Covid-19 have been documented as the virus mutates, including the so-called British, South African and Brazilian variants which appear to spread more swiftly than others.

Announcing the key decisions of the monetary policy committee, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has kept the repo rates unchanged at 4%. This is the first monetary policy announcement after the presentation of the Union Budget 2021-22 on February 1.

The Monetary Policy Committee met on 3rd, 4th and 5th February and deliberated on current and evolving macroeconomic and financial developments both domestic and global. The MPC voted unanimously to leave the policy repo rate unchanged at 4 per cent, said Das.

Petrol prices in India touched new all-time highs after oil marketing companies increased rates on Friday, fuelling hopes that the government cuts excise duties.

Petrol price in Delhi soared by 30 paise to Rs 86.95 a litre on Friday. This marks the highest ever price at which petrol has been sold in New Delhi, surpassing the earlier high of Rs 86.65 a litre that was recorded yesterday. Diesel inched up by 35 paise to Rs 76.83.

PayPal Holdings Inc will wind down its domestic payments business in India from April 1, the company said in a statement on Friday.

San Jose, California-based PayPal will instead focus on its cross-border payments business, which means global customers will still be able to pay Indian merchants using the service.

Shares of Mahindra & Mahindra hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 893 on the BSE aftre rallying 7 per cent on Thursday. The stock has surged 19 per cent in the past four days after reporting strong tractor sales volume of 35,000 units for January 2021, up 50 per cent over the same month previous year. The stock is 10 per cent away from its all-time high level of Rs 992, touched on August 30, 2018.

State-owned power giant NTPC on Thursday reported a net profit of Rs 3,315 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2020 (Q3FY21), up 11 per cent year-on-year. The net profit was Rs 2,995 crore during the same period a year earlier. Sequentially, profit declined 5 per cent. It was Rs 3,504 crore in the September quarter (Q2FY21).

Revenue from operations grew by 4.3 per cent to Rs 24,509 crore compared to the revenue of Rs 23,496 crore during the same period a year ago. The revenue was Rs 24,677 crore in the September quarter.

In a good news for crores of State Bank of India (SBI) customers, the SBI has launched a facility in which the customers can add a nominee for their SBI account online. The launch of the facility means that the SBI customers will not need to visit the bank branch to add nominee in SBI account online. It is to be noted that SBI gives nomination facility for all deposit accounts, articles in safe custody and safe deposit vaults.

With 12,899 people testing positive for coronavirus infection in a day, India's COVID-19 tally of cases rose to 1,07,90,183, while the recoveries surged to 1,04,80,455 , according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.

The death toll increased to 1,54,703 with 107 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

Shares of Bajaj Consumer Care, on Thursday, shot up 11 per cent to hit a 52-week high of Rs 284 in intra-day trade on the BSE, thus zooming 33 per cent in the last two trading sessions after the company reported 17 per cent year on year (YoY) growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 57.30 crore in the December quarter (Q3FY21), on healthy revenue. The personal products company posted 17 per cent YoY jump in sales at Rs 248.39 crore.

Shares of Apollo Tyres were locked in the 10 per cent upper circuit band at Rs 250, which was also its fresh 52-week high, on the BSE in the intra-day trade on Thursday after the company's consolidated net profit more-than-doubled to Rs 443.8 crore in December quarter (Q3FY21) on the back of healthy operational performance and other income. The auto tyres & rubber products company had clocked a profit of Rs 173.9 crore in Q3FY20 and had posted a net loss of Rs 246.20 crore in Q2FY21.

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