• The much-awaited initial public offering of state-run insurance giant Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) could be pushed to the next financial year, as the government is likely to hold a meeting to reassess The meeting for a likely reassessment of LIC listing will be held "this week", a government official privy to the development told the news channel.
  •  The draft red-herring prospectus for the LIC IPO was released on February 13. The offer is for the sale of up to 316.25 million shares or around 5 percent held in the insurance sector behemoth by the Centre. Sitharaman, while addressing reporters in Mumbai on February 22, had said the government was going ahead with the IPO which has generated a positive buzz in the market. Crude oil prices have crossed $100, and Goldman Sachs has raised its one-month Brent forecast to $115.
  • The sanctions have hammered the Russian market. The geopolitical tensions also affected bourses in Europe, where the primary German and French exchanges plummeted by over 3 percent in the early trading hours of this week.