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Oil prices fell in early Asian trade on Wednesday after an industry group reported a surprise jump in U.S. stockpiles, fueling concerns about weaker-than-expected demand in the top oil consuming nation. Brent crude oil futures fell 19 cents, or 0.2%, to $84.82 a barrel by 0023 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 11 cents, or 0.1%, to $80.72 per barrel.

InCred Equities said the chemical sector looks ripe for a fresh up-cycle which is expected to last for the next few years. The brokerage said some stocks look ripe for almost 100% upside and more. “These stocks have either reversed from a long-term support or made a multiyear breakout retest which make them quite safe as compared to the stocks which are witnessing a breakout which can fail if the markets correct,” said InCred’s VP, Gaurav Bissa, in a client note.

Anil Agarwal's Vedanta Resources is likely to sell a minority stake in Vedanta Ltd this week through block deals, people aware of the development said. The promoter group is likely to sell a stake of about 2.5%, or 90 million shares, to raise ₹4,000 crore through the transactions, said one of the persons. The sale is likely to happen at a discount of around 8-10%, one of the persons said. It will help Vedanta Resources repay debt due for payment in the next few months, one of them said.

Ralph Lauren, the all-American brand, is now, for the ninth time, the outfit designers for the US Olympic and Paralympic participants taking part in the upcoming Paris Olympics 2024, scheduled for July 26 to August 11, this year. This is the ninth time Ralph Lauren has taken up the onus of working on Team USA's outfits and giving it the artistic touch it needs, says an NY Post report.

Exporters sought the creation of an Indian shipping line, duty cuts on import of products like wet blue leather, extension of a key scheme for small exporters to avail pre- and post-shipment rupee export credit, and duty drawback for platinum jewellery at their pre-budget meeting with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday. Highlighting the need for an Indian shipping line, the Federation of Indian Export Organisations president Ashwani Kumar said that India's outward remittance on transport services is increasing with rising exports. «We remitted over $109 billion as transport service charge in 2022. As the country moves towards the goal of $1 trillion, this will touch $200 billion by 2030. A 25% share by the Indian shipping line can save $50 billion on a year-on-year basis,» he said.

Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliate central trade union, demanded that the Centre extend the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for 200 days for each family from 100 now, include agriculture and allied sector work under the scheme and restore the old pension scheme. In its pre-budget meeting with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday, BMS general secretary Ravindra Himte demanded a five-fold increase in the minimum pension under the Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS), 1995, to ₹5,000, along with enhancement of honorarium of scheme workers, especially for accredited social health activists as well as Anganwadi, Midday Meal Scheme and National Health Mission workers.

Delhi High Court on Tuesday stayed a lower court's last week's order granting bail to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy case. Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain observed that the lower court judge granted the bail «without going through and appreciating» the material brought on record by the Enforcement Directorate, «which reflects perversity in the order». Commenting on the lower court's observation that it need not dwell into voluminous documents pertaining to the case, the high court said: «It is not understandable that on one hand, the vacation judge has expressed her inability to go through the entire documents stated to have been running into thousands of pages… and on the other hand, how… (she) has mentioned that relevant arguments and contentions raised on behalf of the parties are dealt with».

special TADA court here on Tuesday rejected gangster Abu Salem's plea opposing his planned transfer from the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai. Salem is undergoing life sentence at the Taloja prison in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. The decision to shift him was a «conspiracy to kill him» as he was likely to be released in a few months, Salem's application claimed. The current prison was safe for him and he could be attacked by members of the rival gangs in other jails in Maharashtra, it said. The jail administration told the court it wanted to relocate Salem as his current cell needed reconstruction, and there was no other safe cell for him in Taloja. Special judge for cases under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act B D Shelke, after hearing both the sides, rejected Salem's plea. The court, however, asked the inspector general (prisons), Pune, to issue appropriate directions to the Taloja jail superintendent to ensure the gangster's safety while shifting him to the central prison in Nashik, as planned. A direction should also be issued to the Nashik prison to ensure the safety and security of the convict, the judge said.

WASHINGTON: U.S. consumer confidence eased slightly in June amid worries about the economic outlook, but households were upbeat about the labor market and their inflation expectations over the next year improved a bit, a survey showed on Tuesday. The Conference Board said that its consumer confidence index eased to 100.4 this month from a downwardly revised 101.3 in May. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the index slipping to 100.0 from the previously reported 102.0.

Nvidia short sellers have raked in nearly $5 billion in paper profits from the AI chip designer's sharp selloff over the past three sessions, according to data analytics firm Ortex Technologies. The stock has slumped 13% and lost $430 billion in market capitalization since June 18, when it briefly became the world's most valuable company following a meteoric rise.

Mumbai: Just like the post-pandemic recovery, the Indian inflation story is also 'K-shaped' and is hurting certain sections more than others, a foreign brokerage said on Tuesday. Rural consumers are more impacted by price-rise than their urban counterparts, economists at HSBC said, adding it outstripped the urban segment by 1.1 percentage point in May, mainly due to higher food inflation. «The same developments, driving a K-shaped recovery, seem to be driving K-shaped inflation dynamics,» they said in a report. The report by its chief economist Pranjul Bhandari cited the ongoing heat waves, pointing out that higher food and lower core inflation are coexisting because of crop damage and livestock mortality pushing up the former.

Shaktikanta Das while addressing the 188th AGM of Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Mumbai informed that India is at the threshold of a major structural shift in its growth trajectory as it moves towards 8% GDP in a sustained manner. «India is at the threshold of a major structural shift in its growth trajectory moving towards 8% GDP growth in a sustained manner,» said the RBI governor in Mumbai. Speaking on RBI's forecast of 7.2% growth, the governor flagged concerns such as weather, geo political conflicts, fragmentation in trade and other challenges like heightened financial sector volatility that could hurt the forecast but remains confident of achieving the predicted growth.

Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday urged the Congress not to force a contest for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker as the presiding officer does not belong to any party. Rijiju's remarks came after Congress leader Kodikunnil Suresh filed the nomination for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker against the NDA nominee Om Birla, forcing a rare election to the post after 48 years. «I appeal again that they should think about keeping in mind the dignity of the post of Speaker. We have the numbers but still, we are requesting that there should be no election for the post of Speaker because this post does not belong to any party,» the Parliamentary Affairs Minister said. He said the government had contacted major opposition parties over the last two days for consensus on the post of the Speaker.

Sanghi Industries' promoters Ambuja Cements and Ravi Sanghi will sell stakes in the company via offer for sale (OFS), the cement manufacturer said on Tuesday in an exchange filing. The promoters proposed to sell 90,92,000 shares representing 3.52% of the total issued and paid-up equity share capital. The two-day OFS will open on June 26.

On the BSE, Ascensive Educare(down 20.00 per cent), Tanvi Foods(India)(down 20.00 per cent), Achyut Healthcare(down 11.40 per cent), Source Natural(down 10.71 per cent) and Transpact Enterprise(down 9.98 per cent) stood among the top losers in today's trade.

BJP ally Chirag Paswan on Tuesday took a swipe at the Congress for playing the "Dalit card" in the election for Lok Sabha speaker, claiming that the opposition resorts to the ploy whenever its defeat in a contest is certain. The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader said in a post in Hindi on X that when the Congress-led opposition knew that it would lose the vice-presidential poll in 2002, it fielded Dalit leader Sushil Kumar Shinde. It named another Congress leader Meira Kumar, who hails from a Dalit community, as its choice for president in 2017 when the numbers favoured the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Ram Nath Kovind, who was elected, Paswan said.

duty structure wherever required. In a pre-budget meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, FIEO president Ashwani Kumar made a case for an extension of the Interest Equalisation Scheme for the next five years. «We request the scheme which is valid till 30th June, 2024 may be extended for a period of 5 years. Looking into the rise in interest rates consequent to the increase in Repo rate from 4.4 per cent to 6.5 per cent in the last 2 years, the subvention rates may be restored back from 3 per cent to 5 per cent for manufacturers in MSMEs,» Kumar said. Kumar also urged for the establishment of an Indian shipping line of global repute to reduce foreign shipping line dependency and save foreign exchange.

Southwest Monsoon reached Rajasthan on Tuesday, according to the Met Centre here. The weather office said that the monsoon has further advanced into some more parts of the North Arabian Sea, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and parts of southeast Rajasthan. The Northern Limit of Monsoon passes through Mundra, Mahesana, Udaipur, Shivpuri, Siddhi, Chaibasa, Haldia, Pakur, Sahibganj and Raxaul. The centre said conditions are favourable for the Southwest Monsoon to advance into more parts of Rajasthan over the next three to four days.

Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, an RSS-affiliate central trade union, demanded the Centre extend the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme for 200 days for each family from 100 now, inclusion of agriculture and allied sector work under the scheme and restoration of the old pension scheme. In its pre-budget meeting with the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, BMS general secretary Ravindra Himte demanded increasing the minimum pension under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS), 1995 from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 while enhancing of honorarium of scheme workers, especially for Asha, Aanganwadi, Mid-day Meal and National Health Mission workers. “The government must ensure provision of adequate funding for Beedi and other unorganised sector welfare boards and a minimum monthly pension of Rs 5000 and variable dearness allowance along with benefits of Ayushman Bharat for all EPS 95 pensioners,” it said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

workspace operator India Accelerator has added 250,000 sq ft across 7 centres in Pune, Gurugram and Noida. The company has added 3200 seats in Noida, 900 seats in Gurugram and 400 seats in Pune. With presence in multiple locations, India Accelerator has grown its portfolio to over 200 startups. This expansive network enables startups to benefit from shared knowledge, resources, and collaboration opportunities, driving innovation and success across the board. «This expansion with an investment USD 4 million will enable us to cater to a wider audience of innovators, creators, and entrepreneurs, providing them with the infrastructure and support they need to thrive,” said Abhay Chawla, co-founder and COO, IndiaAccelerator.

bad loan aggregator, National Asset Reconstruction Co (NARCL), has received four expressions of interest in response to its call for a second round of bidding to take over the debt of Sion Panvel Tollways, people familiar with the matter said. The second round for the project that links Mumbai with its southeastern suburbs and Pune was called in May after the earlier three bids were rejected by NARCL due to their low value. This is the first move by NARCL to recover bad debt since it started operations in January 2022.