Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
PV Sindhu dominated from start to finish and smashed her way into the second round of the prestigious All England Badminton Championships, in Birmingham, on Wednesday.
Two-time world champions West Indies will be the star attraction when 10 teams battle it out at next month's ICC Cricket World Cup qualifier for the two remaining places at the mega-event in 2019.
Local officials said no casualties have been reported due to Wednesday's quake that hit the Madoi County in Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai province of northwest China at 3:44 pm (Beijing time), tremors for which were also felt in north-eastern Nepal.
India's table tennis star Manika Batra made a stunning comeback against World No 32 Margaryta Pesotska to reach the women's singles third round but Gnanasekaran Sathiyan succumbed to the pressure on his Olympic debut
Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty rebounded from early lows to settle higher on Wednesday following buying in Reliance Industries, Larsen & Toubro and ITC and positive trends in Asian and European markets. The 30-share BSE Sensex rose by 173.22 points or 0.26 per cent to settle at 66,118.69. The index opened lower and fell further to a low of 65,549.96 in morning trade.
RMV Gurusaidutt made it to the main draw of the men's singles at the Malaysia Super Series, after contrasting victories in the first two rounds of the qualifiers in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. The Indian shuttler first staved off the challenge from Andre Kurniawan Tedjono of Indonesia, winning 21-23, 21-18, 21-14, and then brushed aside Yan Kit Chan of Hong Kong 21-13, 21-9.
RMV Gurusaidutt made it to the main draw of the men's singles at the Malaysia Super Series, after contrasting victories in the first two rounds of the qualifiers in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. The Indian shuttler first staved off the challenge from Andre Kurniawan Tedjono of Indonesia, winning 21-23, 21-18, 21-14, and then brushed aside Yan Kit Chan of Hong Kong 21-13, 21-9.
Sameer Verma advanced to the semi-finals of the US $150,000 Swiss Open with an easy victory over former world No. 2 Kento Momota of Japan, in Basel, on Saturday.
World No. 15 Sindhu, who will be eyeing her third Olympic medal at the Paris Games in two months time, will face second seed and world no. 7 Wang Zhi Yi of China in the summit clash.
The Hyderabad Open badminton tournament, scheduled to be held from August 11 to 16, was on Thursday cancelled by the world body BWF in view of the coronavirus pandemic. The event was part of the BWF's revised calendar to restart the sport after the pandemic-forced cancellations since March.
Gulliver had about $7.6 million pounds in a Swiss account in 2007.
After a three-month hiatus, the Walt Disney Company's largest Magic Kingdom in Asia is back in business. The Shanghai Disney Resort threw open its doors Monday -- albeit with strict social distancing and public safety measures in place. Tickets for the earliest days of Shanghai Disneyland's re-opening sold out rapidly on Friday.
From the Sensex pack, Tata Motors, HCL Technologies, Power Grid, Tech Mahindra, NTPC, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Wipro, Nestle, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys were among the major gainers. Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Mahindra & Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, IndusInd Bank and State Bank of India were the major laggards.
India's Kidambi Srikanth registered a hard-fought victory to enter the semi-finals of the men's singles at the Singapore Super Series, even as P V Sindhu and B Sai Praneeth lost in straight games.
P V Sindhu, H S Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth booked their places in the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 tournament.
From the Sensex pack, NTPC jumped nearly 4 per cent after the company posted over 23 per cent rise in consolidated net profit in the April-June quarter of 2023-24. Power Grid, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, Maruti and JSW Steel were among the other major gainers.
Former champions P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth advanced to the quarter-finals with easy victories, but the highlight of the third day's proceedings in the Yonex-Sunrise India Open badminton tournament was H S Prannoy's thrilling victory over Denmark's Jan Jorgensen.
Saina lost 9-21, 12-21 in the women's singles clash that lasted just 24 minutes
Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries, UltraTech Cement, Mahindra & Mahindra, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank and Tata Steel were the other big gainers. Sun Pharma, HCL Technologies, Asian Paints, Nestle and Infosys were the laggards.
Kidambi Srikanth scored a stunning straight-games victory over world No. 4 Lee Zii Jia but Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen suffered a shock defeat in the opening round of the Japan Open Super 750 badminton tournament, in Osaka, on Wednesday.
Mohun Bagan notched up their second consecutive victory with a 4-0 thrashing of a 10-man South China of Hong Kong in an away match of the AFC Cup football tournament in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone will prepay $195 million of debt due in 2024 as the conglomerate helmed by Gautam Adani looks to boost investors' confidence post being targeted by a US short-seller. In a stock exchange filing, APSEZ said it will buy back $195 million of bonds due in 2024 using its cash reserves. Out of the $520 million principal outstanding, $325 million will be left after the buyback, it said.
From the Sensex pack, Mahindra & Mahindra emerged as the biggest gainer, climbing nearly 5 per cent. Power Grid, Tata Motors, Reliance Industries, NTPC, Axis Bank, Nestle, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Asian Paints and Wipro were among the other major gainers. Maruti, HCL Technologies, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank, Infosys and Tata Steel were among the laggards.
Among the Sensex firms, Reliance Industries, Maruti, Sun Pharma, State Bank of India, UltraTech Cement, Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hindustan Unilever, ITC and HDFC Bank were the biggest gainers. Shares of Reliance Industries climbed 1.54 per cent, the most among the 30-share BSE constituents. Power Grid, Axis Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors were among the major laggards.
China and the United States were headed for a major diplomatic confrontation as Washington on Wednesday ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, a move it said was aimed 'to protect American intellectual property and private information', hinting at cyber espionage.
World No 2 Carolina Marin of Spain also figures in her same group and Sindhu will have task cut out when she faces the Spaniard on Friday.
Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty settled higher on Thursday, powered by a rally in banking and power stocks amid a largely firm trend in global markets. The stock markets mostly traded range-bound in the absence of any major trigger and persistent foreign capital outflows, traders said. The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 144.31 points, or 0.18 per cent, to settle at 81,611.41.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu set up a mouth-watering summit clash with Rio Olympic gold medallist Carolina Marin after a hard-fought win over World No 4 Korean Sung Ji Hyun in the semi-finals of the India Super Series, in New Delhi, on Saturday.
If Saina manages to go past Okuhara, the Indian might run into fourth seed Carolina Marin, who is placed in her half of the draw.
This is the first time two Indians will contest the final of an Asian squash event.
Ace Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy crashed out in the second round of the China Open Super Series after suffering straight game defeats in their respective events.
Rio Olympics silver medallist P V Sindhu began her campaign at the Tokyo Olympics with an easy 21-7, 21-10 victory over Israel's Ksenia Polikarpova in her first singles group match on Sunday.
The court had earlier allowed Burman twice to go abroad, including a trip to London to attend his ailing brother there.
Defending champion P V Sindhu marched into the final of the women's singles at the US $120,000 Macau Open Grand Prix Gold on Saturday.
Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty declined for the second straight session on Friday following selling in banking, financial and select IT shares amid a weak trend in global markets. The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped by 125.65 points or 0.19 per cent to close at 66,282.74 as 16 of its constituents fell and 14 advanced. The index opened lower and fell further by around 513 points to the day's low of 65,895.41 in morning deals.
ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Infosys, M&M, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, SBI and Maruti were also among the gainers. On the other hand, IndusInd, TCS, Titan and Asian Paints declined.
'China's action towards India really gives you a good insight into how the Communist Party of China is thinking these days'
M&M was the top loser in the Sensex pack, skidding 3.31 per cent, followed by Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank, Maruti, Tata Motors and Tech Mahindra. On the other hand, Tata Steel, L&T, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank were among the gainers.
Indian shuttler Arvind Bhat entered the quarter-finals of the Dutch Open Badminton Championships, beating Sweden's Gabriel Ulldahl in straight games in a third round encounter on Thursday.
