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		<img align="" alt="Ongoing bull market phase 'longest and slowest', says Morgan Stanley" class="imgCont" height="464" src="https://bsmedia.business-standard.com/_media/bs/img/article/2019-03/08/full/1551991482-3959.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #DDD; margin-right: 10px; padding: 1px; float: left; z-index: 0;" title="Ongoing bull market phase 'longest and slowest', says Morgan Stanley" width="620">
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		NSE's headline index Nifty surged 307 points or over 3 per cent to settle at 9,860.</div></div>

Ongoing bull market phase 'longest and slowest', says Morgan Stanley

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	Indian equity market soared on Thursday, the last day of the futures & options (F&O) contracts of April series, as encouraging early results from a Covid-19 treatment trial boosted investor sentiment. Buying was witnessed across the board with stocks such as Tata Motors, Vedanta, and Hindalco leading the charge.&nbsp;</div>
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	The S&P BSE Sensex rallied an impressive 997 points or 3 per cent to 33,718 levels. Of 30 constituents, 26 ended in the green and rest 4 in the red. ONGC (up over 13 per cent) emerged as the biggest gainer on the index, followed by HCL Tech (up 11 per cent), Hero MotoCorp (up 9 per cent), and NTPC (up 6 per cent).&nbsp;</div>
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	On the contrary, Sun Pharma (down nearly 3 per cent) ended as the top loser. HUL ,too, ended over 1.6 per cent lower at Rs 2,195.70 ahead of its March quarter results due later in the day.&nbsp;<br />
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	Reliance Industries (RIL) stock ended nearly 3 per cent higher at Rs&nbsp;1,467.05 apiece on the BSE. The company is slated to announce March quarter results and consider rights issue later in the day. Further, it&nbsp;has announced that it will reduce the salaries of some of its employees in the hydrocarbon division by 10 per cent in view of the &quot;adverse impact&quot; of the coronavirus pandemic on fuel demand. <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/ril-announces-salary-cuts-mukesh-ambani-to-forgo-entire-compensation-120043000661_1.html" target="_blank"><strong>READ MORE</strong></a></div>
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<div>
	NSE&#39;s headline index Nifty surged 307 points or over 3 per cent to settle at 9,860.&nbsp;<br />
	<br />
	On a weekly basis, Sensex zoomed 7.6 per cent and Nifty jumped 7.7 per cent.&nbsp;<br />
	<br />
	In the broader market, the&nbsp;S&P BSE MidCap index rallied 1.46 per cent to&nbsp;12,013 levels and the&nbsp;S&P BSE SmallCap index gained over 1 per cent to&nbsp;11,102-mark.&nbsp;<br />
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	On the sectoral front, metal stocks advanced the most with the Nifty Metal index surging 8 per cent to&nbsp;1,859.90 levels. Nifty Auto index was second on the list - up 6.45 per cent to&nbsp;5,901 levels.&nbsp;<br />
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	Markets will remain closed on Friday on account of&nbsp;Maharashtra Day.&nbsp;<br />
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		<strong>Global Markets</strong></div>
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	<div>
		World stocks headed for their best month on record on Thursday, as encouraging early results from a COVID-19 treatment trial and expectations of more European Central Bank (ECB) stimulus later in the day helped ease the pain of February and March.</div>
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		Europe saw a cautious start.</div>
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		A 1.4 per cent rise in MSCI&rsquo;s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares, excluding Japan, has it tracking toward a weekly gain of more than 5 per cent, its best in three weeks. Japan&#39;s Nikkei jumped 2.8 per cent to a seven-week high.&nbsp;</div>
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	<div>
		In commodities, oil prices jumped, lifted by signs that the US crude glut is not growing as quickly as expected and of a rise in fuel demand, which has been crushed by the coronavirus. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures climbed to $17.11 a barrel, up 13.6 per cent or $2.05 at the time of writing of this report. The US benchmark surged 22 per cent on Wednesday.</div>
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		Brent LCOc1 was up 7.6 per cent, or $1.71 at $24.25 a barrel in light trading, with the June contract expiring on Thursday, having posted a 10 per cent gain on Wednesday.</div>
	<br />
	<div>
		<strong><em>(With inputs from Reuters)</em></strong></div>
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F&O expiry: Sensex soars 997 pts on Covid-19 drug hopes; auto, IT stks gain

Business Standard

F&O expiry: Sensex soars 997 pts on Covid-19 drug hopes; auto, IT stks gain | News on Markets - Business Standard

NEWS ALERT | Glenmark Pharma receives approval to conduct trials on Favipiravir Antiviral tablets for Covid-19: BSE filing

&gt;&gt; The company announced it has received approval from the DCGI (Drug Controller General of India), the regulator in India to conduct clinical trials on Favipiravir Antiviral tablets on Covid-19 patients.<br />
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&gt;&gt; The product is a generic version of Avigan of Fujifilm Toyama Chemical Co. Ltd., Japan, a subsidiary of Fujifilm Corporation.<br />
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Alert: Favipiravir has demonstrated activity against influenza viruses and has been approved in Japan for the treatment of novel influenza virus infections. Recently in the past few months, post the outbreak of COVID-19, multiple clinical trials have been initiated on COVID-19 patients in China, Japan and in the US.

NEWS ALERT :: Japan March retail sales fall 4.6% YoY, reports Reuters

<a href="https://www1.nseindia.com/products/content/equities/equities/bulk.htm" target="_blank"><em><strong>Click here for complete list</strong></em></a><br />
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FII/FPI & DII trading activity on NSE, BSE and MSEI

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NEWS ALERT :: China’s Services PMI expands to 53.2 from 52.3 in March, reports Reuters

&gt;&gt;&nbsp;China&rsquo;s Manufacturing PMI eased to 50.8 in April from 52 in March.<br />
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&gt;&gt;&nbsp;The official April composite PMI, which includes both manufacturing and services activity, rose to 53.4 from March&rsquo;s 53.<br />
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&gt;&gt; At 8:22 am, Brent crude futures were trading nearly 8 per cent higher at $24.3/bbl.<br />
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&gt;&gt; US WTI, meanwhile, was at $16.6 per barrel-mark, up over 10 per cent.<br />
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SGX Nifty indicates positive start for indices

&gt;&gt; At 8:17 am, the index was at 9,754.25 level, up<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>205.10 points or<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>2.15 per cent<br />
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	<img align="" alt="" class="imgCont" height="464" src="https://bsmedia.business-standard.com/_media/bs/img/article/2019-09/21/full/1569011767-6014.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #DDD; margin-right: 10px; padding: 1px; float: left; z-index: 0; width:100%" title="" width="620" /></div>
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Wall Street rallies on promising coronavirus drug

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F&O expiry: Sensex soars 997 pts on Covid-19 drug hopes; auto, IT stks gain

All that happened in the markets today

NEWS ALERT | Glenmark Pharma receives approval to conduct trials on Favipiravir Antiviral tablets for Covid-19: BSE filing

NEWS ALERT :: Japan March retail sales fall 4.6% YoY, reports Reuters

Bulk deals on NSE as on Wednesday

Bulk deals on BSE as on Wednesday

FII/FPI & DII trading activity on NSE, BSE and MSEI

NEWS ALERT :: China’s Services PMI expands to 53.2 from 52.3 in March, reports Reuters

Rupee check

Oil check

SGX Nifty indicates positive start for indices

Asian stocks track gains in the US

Wall Street rallies on promising coronavirus drug