Business

Chinese gold dealers were forced to offer the steepestever discounts this week as physical demand plunged, while the Indian market flipped to a premium again.

OPEC oil output has risen by over 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in July as Saudi Arabia and other Gulf members ended their voluntary extra supply curbs on top of an OPECled deal, and other members made limited progress on compliance.

Dutch healthcare equipment company Philips did not raise the price of its ventilators to maximise profit from sales during the coronavirus crisis, it said on Friday in response to a U.S. Congress report.

The World Trade Organization has failed to select a caretaker chief due to an impasse among members who must still agree by November on a replacement for outgoing DirectorGeneral Roberto Azevedo, the Genevabased body said on Friday.

Exxon Mobil Corp reported a $1.1 billion loss for the second quarter on Friday, the first backtoback quarterly loss for the U.S. oil giant in at least 36 years.

Food inflation stood at 5.49 per cent in June 2020 as against 5.88 per cent in the previous month and 5.47 per cent during the corresponding month a year ago

The U.S. Agriculture Department has identified more than a dozen plant species ranging from morning glories to mustard in bags of unsolicited seeds arriving in the mailboxes of thousands of Americans, mostly postmarked from China.

The U.S. government will pay $2.1 billion to Sanofi SA and GlaxoSmithKline Plc for COVID19 vaccines to cover 50 million people and to underwrite the drug makers' testing and manufacturing, the companies said on Friday.

Gilead said it expects total 2020 sales of $23 billion to $25 billion, up from its previous range of $21.8 billion to $22.2 billion.

Revenue at Maybelline maker L'Oreal fell sharply in the second quarter even as online sales surged during lockdowns to fight the COVID19 pandemic, though the French beauty group managed to contain any major erosion of profit margins.

The consolidated profit during June quarter 2020 increased 102.4% sequentially and the year-on-year increase was 30.6%.

Mastercard Inc's quarterly profit beat analyst estimates on Thursday, as lower costs helped dull the blow from fewer people using the payment processor's cards during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Malaysia's AirAsia X Bhd fell to a net loss in its first quarter, a fourth straight quarterly loss as the pandemic slowed air travel demand.

Singapore Exchange Ltd (SGX) reported a nearly 17% increase in its net profit for the quarter ending in June as the bourse benefited from an increase in trading volume.

The BSE Sensex was trading 207.12 points or 0.54 per cent higher at 38,278.25; while the NSE Nifty was up 71.35 points or 0.64 per cent at 11,274.20.

At the interbank forex market, the rupee opened at 74.84, then lost further ground and touched 74.87 against the US dollar, down 7 paise over its last close of 74.80.