13:30 (IST)
AirAsia cuts staff salaries by up to 20% for April
AirAsia India has cut the April salary of its staff by up to 20 percent to tackle the airline’s finances amid the suspension of all commercial services till 3 May due to the lockdown, a source has said.
Those drawing Rs 50,000 per month or less have been spared from the wage cut.
The Bengaluru-headquartered budget carrier is the latest to join the other domestic airlines such as IndiGo, SpiceJet and Vistara, who have already taken similar measures to cut fixed cost amid grounding of their fleet.
“AirAsia India has cut the April salary of its employees by up to 20 percent. The senior management will take a pay cut of 20 percent while the wages of the executives falling in others categories have been reduced by 17 percent, 13 percent and 7 percent, respectively,” the source who is privy to the development told PTI.
13:18 (IST)
Indices recover as Sensex rises 70 points, Nifty above 9,200-mark
The benchmark indices recovered as the Sensex rose 70.55 points or 0.22 percent to 31,659.27 while the Nifty was up 11.05 points or 0.12 percent at 9,277.80 at around 1 pm.
13:04 (IST)
Online searches by Indians to cure COVID-19 surge between February, April 2020
Online searches for hydroxychloroquine rose by an astonishing 12,245 percent between February and March 2020, found a study by SEMrush.
Recently, US President Donald Trump demanded that India export the drug to the US because it is believed to shorten the time of clinical recovery from COVID-19.
Trump’s words likely caught the attention of Indians who are searching for the drug to keep their families safe from the virus. Notably, searches for two drugs similar to hydroxychloroquine, namely, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine sulfate rose by 2,384 percent and 1,577 percent respectively between February and March 2020.
The SEMrush study shows there was a surge in searches with the keyword ‘coronavirus symptoms’. From being searched 1.8M times in February 2020, the keywords went to being searched a whopping 14.2M in times in March 2020. The SEMrush study reveals that Indians are turning to the internet to find ways of protecting themselves from COVID-19.
12:56 (IST)
ICICI Bank launches voice banking services on Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant
ICICI Bank on Monday announced that it has integrated its AI powered multi-channel chatbot, ‘iPal’, with popular voice assistant apps–Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant– to enable its retail banking customers to undertake an array of banking services with just a simple voice command.
To get the benefit of the voice banking offering, customers need to download the Alexa/Google Assistant and link their ICICI Bank account through a secure two factor authentication process. They can then speak out their query to Alexa/Google Assistant enabled devices to check their savings account balance and credit card details including due date, due amount and last five transactions.
Speaking on the initiative, Anup Bagchi, executive director, ICICI Bank said, “We want to offer improved digital convenience to our customers… to facilitate their banking, digitally and from a remote location, without visiting a bank branch.”
12:53 (IST)
European markets open higher
#CNBCTV18Market | Markets across Europe kick off the week with gains at the opening pic.twitter.com/lTHNZGhEHY
— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) April 20, 2020
12:51 (IST)
Alembic gets USFDA nod for generic ophthalmic solution
12:47 (IST)
Indices back in green, Nifty holds 9,200-level
The benchmark indices was back in the green zone as the Sensex rose 34.97 points or 0.11 percent to 31,623.69 while the Nifty was up 5.10 points or 0.06 percent at 9,271.85 at around 12.40 pm.
12:34 (IST)
Business optimism for April-June quarter falls to record low: Report
12:24 (IST)
Philips drops 2020 outlook as coronavirus hits Q1 earnings
Dutch health technology company Philips on Monday dropped its outlook for the rest of the year, as the global coronavirus outbreak took a large bite out of its first-quarter earnings while the second quarter was set to be even worse.
Philips said earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation (EBITA) dropped 33 percent from a year earlier in the first quarter to 244 million euros ($265 million), while comparable sales declined 2 percent to 4.15 billion euros.
The novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 has increased global demand for Philips’ ventilators, scanners and other hospital equipment.
12:23 (IST)
No summer vacation for Customs, Excise, Service Tax Appellate Tribunal
Custom, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal decide to have no summer vacation for the year 2020 pic.twitter.com/0YLGz1cJqF
— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) April 20, 2020
Stock Market Today LIVE Updates: Sensex up, Nifty reclaims 9,300-mark; Infosys, Tata Motors among major gainers
Sydney: Caution gripped Asian share markets on Monday on expectations a busy week of corporate earnings reports and economic data will drive home the damage done by the global virus lockdown, while US crude prices took an early spill.
Japan reported its exports fell almost 12 percent in March from a year earlier, with shipments to the US down over 16 percent. Early readings on April manufacturing globally are due on Thursday and are expected to show recession-like readings.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.2 percent in slow early trade, with a pause needed after five straight weeks of gains. Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.3 percent and South Korea 0.1 percent.
Representational image. Getty
E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 ESc1 slipped 0.7 percent, having jumped last week on hopes some US states would soon start to re-open their economies.
US President Donald Trump said Sunday that Republicans were “close” to getting a deal with Democrats on a support package for small business.
But the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an increase of 29,916 in new infections and said the number of deaths had risen by 1,759 to 37,202.
The S&P 500 has still rallied 30 percent from its March low, thanks in part to the extreme easing steps taken by the Federal Reserve. The Fed has bought nearly $1.3 trillion of Treasuries alone, and many billions of non-sovereign debt it would historically have never gone near.
“The Fed will be a major buyer of risky assets in the coming months, and has displayed its willingness to backstop virtually any part of the domestic financial system in trouble,” said Oliver Jones, a senior markets economist at Capital Economics.
Yet the particular composition of the S&P 500 was also a major factor, he added, as three sectors relatively resilient to a virus-induced lockdown — IT, communications services and healthcare — make up around 50 percent of the index.
Indeed, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook account for more than a fifth of the index.
“What’s more, the S&P 500 is skewed towards a few ultra-large firms, some of which are also in those sectors. Their sheer size might make them better able to weather a few months of dramatically-low revenues than most.”
#CNBCTV18Market | US stocks end higher on Friday, giving markets the second week of gains in a row pic.twitter.com/AJs3aK2AbZ
— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) April 20, 2020
The rebound in the S&P 500 therefore likely overstated optimism on the economy, Jones argued, noting European benchmark equities indices and US small cap indices were still in bear market territory.
Bond markets suggested investors expected tough economic times ahead with yields on US 10-year Treasuries steady at 0.65 percent, from 1.91 percent at the start of the year.
That decline has shrunk the US dollar’s yield advantage over its peers and left it range-bound in recent weeks. So far in April, the dollar index has wandered between 98.813 and 100.940 and was last at 99.791.
The dollar was a fraction firmer on the yen on Monday at 107.63 but again well within recent ranges, while the euro idled at $1.0868.
Gold had recoiled to $1,676 per ounce, having touched a 7-1/2 peak of $1,746.50 last week.
Oil prices remained under pressure as the global lockdown saw fuel demand evaporate, leaving so much extra supply countries were finding it hard to find space to store it.
So great was the near-term glut that the May futures contract for US crude was trading down 7 percent at $16.96 a barrel CLc1, while June was standing at $24.28 CLc2.
Brent crude LCOc1 futures have already rolled over into June and that contract was off 32 cents at $27.75 a barrel.
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Updated Date: Apr 20, 2020 13:30:45 IST
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