• JSW Steel and the U.S.-based diversified Harsco Corporation entered into a 10-year agreement to provide a range of mill services. Under the contract, Harsco will provide on site slag handling services to JSW plant in Maharashtra’s Dovili. (Bloomberg News)
• The Securities and Exchange Board of India adviced L&T against Rs 9,000 crore buyback offer since the debt ratio after buyback would be more than twice capital & reserves. The company had proposed to buyback 610 lakh shares at price of Rs 1,475 apiece.
• Welspun Enterprises said that it has achieved financial closure for a four-lane road project in Maharashtra for bid cost of Rs 1,048 crore. The company said that NHAI has declared the appointed date for this project as Jan, 16.
• MOIL signed a memorandum of understanding with the Gujarat Mineral Development to take up joint exploration of manganese bearing area and to conduct mining operations in Gujarat. The company also plans to set up a value addition plant in Gujarat with proposed investment of Rs 250 crore.
• Vascon Engineers’ board approved to raise Rs 110 crore via non-convertible debentures which will be used to retire existing loan of Rs 83 crore with ECL Finance.
• MPS approved investment of Rs 40 crore in its wholly owned arm MPS Interactive Systems.
• IDFC First Bank: The Reserve Bank of India approved V Vaidyanathan as managing director, chief executive officer of the bank for three years with effect from Dec. 19 2018.
• Hari Mundra resigned as the non-executive director of Ceat with effect from Jan. 29.
• Vodafone Idea’s board to meet on Jan. 23 to consider fund raising. The company had earlier formed a committee to evaluate fund raising of up to Rs 25,000 crore via equity. The fund raising is expected to complete before March 2019.
• Reliance Infrastructure’s subsidiary Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL) to move to Supreme Court against the arbitration award in the matter of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).
• ITI signed a purchase order contract with Gujarat Fibre Grid Network Ltd. (GFGNL), worth Rs 1,011.41 crore to be completed in one year, for implementing BharatNet Phase II project in Gujarat. Of the total order, Rs 190 crore is towards operation and maintenance for three years.
• SBI: Hitachi has accepted to acquire 26 percent equity in SBI Payment Services Private Limited.

• The Bloomberg Commodity Index gained 1.2 percent Friday to a five-week high.
• Brent crude traded 0.43 percent lower at $62.43 per barrel.
• West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 0.8 percent to $53.39 a barrel.

London Metal Exchange

• Aluminium ended 0.65 percent higher.
• Tin ended higher for the second day, up 0.19 percent.
• Nickel halted a two-day blip, up 1.98 percent.
• Copper ended higher for the fourth day, up 1 percent.
• Lead ended 1.78 percent higher.
• Zinc ended higher for the third day, up 1.3 percent.

Good Morning!

The Singapore-traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of NSE Nifty 50 Index’s performance in India, rose 0.15 percent to 10,951 as of 8:10 a.m.

Asian stocks built on their January rally as investors demonstrated continued confidence that trade tensions ultimately will subside and policy makers will refrain from growth-damaging monetary tightening.

Shares in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney climbed after the S&P 500 Index hit its highest since early December on Friday.

Short on time? well, then listen to this podcast for a quick summary of All You Need To Know before the opening bell podcast.