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MUMBAI : Employees of ICICI Bank reached out to small shareholders of ICICI Securities on the broking unit’s delisting vote that concluded on Tuesday, several investors who received the overtures said. Five shareholders said the ICICI Bank’s branch employees have called and made home visits persuading them not just to vote, but also to vote in favour of delisting. While all five got calls, only one got a home visit.

Economic Times. In the opinion piece published on March 23, Aiyar said, "A dark shadow of creeping authoritarianism looms over India as it prepares for its 18th general election." The article was titled: "Yamini Aiyar laments the damage done to Indian democracy under Narendra Modi". ALSO READ: PM Modi gave India a sustainable model of governance She acknowledged that Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to power after winning a third term.

Gold staged a blinding comeback last week, surging to fresh all-time highs above $2,200 an ounce. The rally, which has added around 10% to gold’s value since mid-February, caught many market watchers off-guard. But for those of us who’ve stuck with the yellow metal through its ups and downs, the price action is the vindicating result of several powerful forces aligning in bullion’s favor.

There is a rising chorus of voices, mostly from the Global South, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the urgent provision of aid to a population that is facing imminent famine. Is anybody listening? Singapore’s foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan is the latest to intervene, telling Israel that it had “gone too far" in its war against Hamas in Gaza. “I have communicated that both to the prime minister, to the foreign minister, and to the other Israelis whom we have met," he said last week on Wednesday.

Foreign portfolio investors turned net sellers in the secondary market last week, selling stocks worth over Rs 7,200 crore on Dalal Street. Selling by the big bulls restrained the upside in benchmark indices, as the BSE Sensex clocked just 0.3% gains.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra including her residence in West Bengal in connection with the alleged cash-for-query case, said officials. Teams of the central probe agency reached Moitra's Kolkata residence and other cities on Saturday morning for a search operation, the officials said as quoted by PTI. They stated that CBI registered an FIR against the former TMC MP on Thursday on the directives of the Lokpal which has instructed the agency to file a report within six months.

finance ministry is not in favour of any major regulatory intervention in the stock market, and believes that over-regulation could lead to nervousness among participants, ETNow news channel reported, quoting sources. The news comes in the backdrop of the recent measures taken by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SebI) to check on the building froth in the small and midcap stocks.

Holi. The holiday-shortened next week will have only three trading sessions as exchanges will again be shut on Friday, March 29 on account of Good Friday. On Monday, the country's largest non-agri commodity market, the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) will also be shut for trading in the morning session between 9 am and 5 pm but open for trading in the evening session between 5 pm and 9 pm. As for the agri-commodity index, no trading will take place on this day.

Karnataka's reservation policy for backward classes has come under the scanner with the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) red-flagging Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation given to Muslims on the basis of religion. NCBC has raised objections following a field visit in July 2023 and detailed examination of Karnataka's reservation policy for OBCs in educational institutions and government jobs. According to Karnataka government's reservation policy (based on the order issued in March 2002), backward classes are grouped as Category I, Category IIA, Category IIB, Category IIIA and Category IIIB and provided 32% reservation. The entire Muslim community is treated as socially and educationally backward under Category IIB. At the same time, the state government is providing reservation to 17 socially and educationally backward communities of Muslims under Category I and 19 communities under Category IIA. NCBC has flagged that if the entire Muslim community is provided reservation under Category IIB, why are certain communities being provided in the other two categories.

At this point, one must wonder what the Fed is trying to pull off, and it isn’t entirely clear to me. It seems like the Fed is taking a big gamble here on inflation hotter than not.

Does this mean that all bank branches will be open on Sunday, March 31?

With only three weeks remaining until the general election, South Korea’s rival political parties are vying for support from crypto investors, who have emerged as a key voting group. 

ok Sabha elections 2024, urges an article published in the Chinese state run-Global Times. Any attempt to exacerbate anti-China sentiment will ultimately cause more trouble for the bilateral relationship and bring more instability to India, reads the opinion piece published on March 17, a day after Election Commission of India announced the schedule for seven-phase Indian general elections beginning April 19. The results will be declared on June 4, the poll panel said.

ASK Hedge Solutions, a subsidiary of Blackstone-backed ASK Asset and Wealth Management Group, announced the launch of its first long-short fund — ASK Absolute Return Fund. It an open-ended Category III Alternative Investment fund, looking to raise Rs 3,000 crore, with approximately Rs 1,000 crore in the next 6 months. Vaibhav Sanghavi and Piyush Shah will be the fund managers.

Uniform Civil Code, while also saying that it should not be implemented only for criticizing Muslims so that they cannot practice polygamy. In an interview with Barkha Dutt for Mojo Story, Javed said people are jealous of Muslims because they have the right to have four wives at a time. “Is this the only reason for implementing the Uniform Civil Code? If you are also given this right, then there will be no problem," he said.

South Korean regulators talked to officials from ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the OECD about crypto policy in Seoul on March 18.

In the last assembly polls, YSRCP clinched 151 seats while TDP could grab only 22 seats. In the southern state, a party to form a government needs a majority of 88 seats. The current party in power, YSRCP released its list with the constituencies for both Lok Sabha and state assembly polls together just hours before ECI made the official announcement. It has announced the names of 25 candidates for Lok Sabha polls along with 175 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh.

By Tim Reid

(This March 14 story has been refiled to fix a spelling error in the CEO's last name throughout the story)

Nifty on Friday ended 123 points lower to form a small negative candle on the daily charts and a bearish engulfing pattern on the weekly charts. The short-term and the near-term trends of Nifty remain weak. A decisive move below 21,900 could open sharp weakness down to the next lower support of 21,500 levels in the near term. Immediate resistance is at 22,200 levels, said Nagaraj Shetti of HDFC Securities.

Shares of Biocon fell over 6% to Rs 250.3 in Friday's trade on BSE after the firm said that its chief financial officer (CFO), Indranil Sen has resigned with effect from 15 March 2024. Indranil Sen has resigned to pursue opportunities outside the organization. He was relieved from his duties by the close of business hours on 14 March 2024, according to the company's regulatory filing.