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earthquake off the coast Taiwan with a magnitude of 7.2 rocked the entire island on Wednesday morning, collapsing buildings in a southern city and creating a tsunami that washed ashore on southern Japanese islands.Taiwan television stations showed footage of some collapsed buildings in the lightly populated eastern city of Hualien, near the quake’s epicentre, and media reported some people were trapped. A five-story building appeared heavily damaged, collapsing its first floor and leaving the rest leaning at a 45-degree angle.In the capital, Taipei, tiles fell from older buildings and within some newer office complexes.

earthquake hit Taiwan's east coast, Reuters reported citing Taiwan's fire department on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a tsunami warning issued for Miyakojima and Okinawa islands in Japan following a powerful earthquake in Taiwan has been downgraded from a warning to an advisory, CNN reported citing Japan's Meteorological Agency.

Oil prices extended gains on Wednesday as a larger than expected fall in U.S. crude inventories and escalating geopolitical tensions raised investor worries about tighter supplies. Brent futures for June delivery rose 20 cents, or 0.22%, to $89.12 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for May climbed 17 cents, or about 0.2%, to $85.32 a barrel, at 0015 GMT.

Sensex fell 110.64 points, or 0.15%, to close at 73,903.91, while the Nifty 50 settled 8.70 points, or 0.04%, lower at 22,453.30. Also Read: Buy or sell: Vaishali Parekh recommends three stocks to buy today — April 3 “We are seeing renewed optimism in the broader market in the mid & small cap stocks after the sharp correction over the past few months. There is a lot of money waiting on the sidelines to be invested in medium enterprises amid easing valuations and hopes of strong economic growth going ahead," said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd.

Okinawa. "Tsunami waves of up to 3 meters were expected to reach large areas of Japan's southwestern coast," according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, which put the quake magnitude at 7.5, as per Reuters report. Additionally, a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 struck offshore Taiwan on the same day, shaking the capital city of Taipei and prompting tsunami warnings for the islands of southern Japan and the Philippines.

Ukrainian drone struck Russia's third largest oil refinery on Tuesday about 1,300 km (800 miles) from the front lines, hitting a unit that processes about 155,000 barrels of crude per day though an industry source said the damage was not significant. Russian officials said its jamming devices locked onto a Ukrainian drone near Tatneft's Taneco refinery, which has an annual production capacity of more than 17 million tons (340,000 barrels per day). Pictures from the scene indicated the drone hit the primary refining unit, CDU-7, at the refinery, though the drone appears to have not done serious damage.

SMC Global Securities. "From our point of view, this market is practically over, at least for the time being,'' added Biswas. The central bank said it would allow exchanges to offer forex derivative contracts involving the rupee only for contracted exposure, or hedging, compared the current allowance of up to $100 million without any explicit underlying exposure.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) told Reuters. In FY23, India collected over ₹5,40,000 crore in toll collections compared to ₹2,52,000 crore in FY19, as per Reuters. The increase in revenue can be credited to the hiked toll taxes and the rise in the number of toll plazas.

hydroelectricity output fell at the steepest pace in at least 38 years during the year ended March 31, a Reuters analysis of government data showed, as erratic rainfall forced further dependence on coal-fired power amid higher demand. The 16.3% drop in generation from the country's biggest clean energy source coincided with the share of renewables in power generation sliding for the first time since Prime Minister Narendra Modi made commitments to boost solar and wind capacity at the United Nations climate talks at Paris in 2015. Renewables accounted for 11.7% of India's power output in the year that ended in March, down from 11.8% a year earlier, a Reuters analysis of daily load despatch data from the federal grid regulator Grid-India showed.

SAIC Motor intends to significantly reduce its workforce at its joint ventures with General Motors (GM) and Volkswagen (VW), as well as at its electric vehicle (EV) subsidiary, Reuters reported citing sources. The planned reductions include slashing 30 percent of employees at SAIC-GM, 10 percent at SAIC Volkswagen, and over half at its Rising Auto EV arm, it added. The staff cuts are not expected to occur all at once through mass layoffs but are targeted for the year 2024.

RBI Monetary Policy Committee Meeting: The first policy meeting of the central bank's rate-setting panel for FY25 is scheduled this week from April 3-5, 2024. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced its schedule for the monetary policy committee (MPC) meetings in the upcoming financial year 2024-25 (FY25), which begins on April 1, 2024. After the April meet, subsequent meetings are set for June 2024, August 2024, October 2024, December 2024, and February 2025.

banned congressional staffers from using Microsoft's Copilot generative AI assistant. According to a report in Axios, the application is seen as a threat in terms of data leakage. “The Microsoft Copilot application has been deemed by the Office of Cybersecurity to be a risk to users due to the threat of leaking House data to non-House approved cloud services,” said Catherine Szpindor, the House chief administrative officer.

Washington Post as reported by Reuters. "It means we will go back, retreat, step by step, in small steps," he added. "We are trying to find some way not to retreat." Shortages of munitions, Zelenskyy said, meant "you have to do with less.

rate cut from the Federal Reserve on the table. The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose 0.3% last month, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis said on Friday. Data for January was revised higher to show the PCE price index climbing 0.4% instead of 0.3% as previously reported.

Boeing's troubled commercial airplane unit said the planemaker faces a «pivotal moment» as it works to boost quality and address significant concerns from regulators and airline customers after a panel flew off a 737 MAX 9 jet in January. «This is a pivotal moment for us, and we have serious work ahead to build trust and improve our operations,» said Stephanie Pope, who was named president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes on Monday, in an email to employees on Wednesday seen by Reuters.

Also Read: Oil market oversupplied with record-high US output, Brent seen at $87-$92 for 2024: ShareKhan's Mohammed Imran Both benchmarks were up more than two per cent on the week and were on track to finish higher for a third consecutive month, according to news agency Reuters. Coming to domestic prices, crude oil futures traded 1.76 per cent higher at ₹6,895 per barrel on the multi commodity exchange (MCX). -In the previous session, oil prices had come under pressure from last week's unexpected rise in US crude oil and gasoline inventories, driven by an increase in crude imports and sluggish gasoline demand, according to Energy Information Administration (EIA) data.

The Canadian economy is outperforming expectations to start 2024, Statistics Canada data shows.

lithium and copper resources, a government source said, as rapid economic expansion and New Delhi's efforts to speed up the energy transition stoke demand for critical minerals. Chile is a key target as it is the world's biggest supplier of copper and the second-biggest producer of lithium, which are essential for electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy systems in the push away from fossil fuels. As part of India's drive to explore overseas for mineral assets, state firms National Aluminium Company, Hindustan Copper and unlisted Mineral Exploration and Consultancy have set up a company called Khanij Bidesh India (KABIL).

WuXi AppTec had transferred US intellectual property to Beijing without consent, according to two sources. The US government is concerned that certain Chinese biotech companies are contributing technology or research and development for use by China's military, and the proposed legislation would restrict US government funds going to those Chinese companies.

Oil prices were broadly level on Wednesday, after official numbers were released for U.S. crude stockpile and signs the OPEC+ producer group is unlikely to change its output policy at a technical meeting next week Brent crude futures for May were down 23 cents, or 0.3%, to $86.02 a barrel by 1447 GMT while the more actively traded June contract was down 21 cents, or 0.3%, at $85.42. The May contract expires on Thursday.

3 Body Problem" has caused debate ad discussions around the world. Now the official numbers are out and the show has not become numero uno viewed one on the OTT streaming giant. Debuting as a formidable contender in the realm of English-language series, «3 Body Problem» made an impressive entrance, securing the position as the second most-watched series. With a staggering 81.70 million hours watched, the show garnered the attention of millions, translating to an astounding 11 million views. It has made it to the top 10 viewed show in 93 countries, as per a report in WhatsOnNetflix.