Yashaswini shoots down gold, secures 9th Olympic quota for India
Rio de Janeiro, Aug 31: Yashaswini Singh Deswal stunned former Olympic and world champion Olena Kostevych of Ukraine to secured India's ninth Olympic quota in shooting after she fired her way to the women's 10m air pistol gold in the ISSF World Cup here on Saturday.
The 22-year-old former junior world champion recorded a score of 236.7 in the eight-women final of the season's fourth World Cup for pistol and rifle shooters.
World no.1 Kostevych claimed the silver with 234.8, while Serbia's Jasmina Milavonovic bagged the beonze with 215.7.
Yashaswini, a student of Economics, had also the topped the qualifications by a mile, aggregating a score of 582.
Playing her fifth senior World Cup and only her second final, Yashaswini led from the first shot, but for the 15th when she fell just 0.1 behind.
She, however, regained her lead on the 16th shot of the 24-shot final.
The Indian though fumbled in between, like during the 21st shot when she scored a 9.7 as against Kostevych's 10.9.
But she roared back in style immediately with a 10.5 to stay clear of the race.
Her two final shots where in the 9s, but importantly both were higher than those of her Ukranian opponent to emerge as the champion.
Among other Indian competitors in the event, Annu Raj Singh shot 572 for a 21st place finish while Shweta Singh finished 31st with a score of 568 in the qualifying.
Earlier in the day Kajal Saini of India delivered a hugely improved performance in the women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) by finishing 22nd with a qualifying round score of 1167.
Former world champion in prone, Tejaswini Sawant finished 47th with a score of 1156.
In the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol, Adarsh Singh and Anish Bhanwala shot 291 out of 300 in the first precision round to be in 13th and 14th spots respectively.
Anhad Jawanda, the third Indian in the fray, shot 281 to be in 48th spot.
The trio will comeback for the final Rapid Fire round on Sunday to try and make it among the top six finalists.
The Indians also continued to do well in the non-competition Minimum Qualification Score (MQS) section. Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh finished 1-2 in the women's 10m Air Pistol, shooting scores of 580 and 577 respectively.
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Investors become poorer by Rs 12 lakh cr in three days of market fall
New Delhi, Jan 10: Investors' wealth tumbled Rs 12 lakh crore in three days of market slump due to uninterrupted foreign fund outflows and concerns over quarterly earnings.
Also, rising crude oil prices and a strengthening dollar index added to investors' pessimism.
In three days, the BSE benchmark Sensex tanked 820.2 points or 1.04 per cent.
On Friday, the 30-share BSE benchmark declined 241.30 points or 0.31 per cent to settle at 77,378.91. During the day, the benchmark gyrated 820.15 points between the day's high of 77,919.70 and low of 77,099.55.
The NSE Nifty dropped 95 points or 0.40 per cent to 23,431.50.
The market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms diminished by Rs 12,07,314.99 crore to Rs 4,29,67,835.05 crore (USD 5 trillion) in the three days.
From the 30-share blue-chip pack on Friday, IndusInd Bank, NTPC, UltraTech Cement, State Bank of India, Sun Pharma, Axis Bank, Tata Steel and Power Grid were among the major laggards.
Tata Consultancy Services jumped nearly 6 per cent after the IT services company reported an 11.95 per cent surge in the December quarter net profit to Rs 12,380 crore.
Devarsh Vakil, Head of Prime Research at HDFC Securities, said, "Strong quarterly earnings from TCS drove the IT index up 3.4 per cent, helping the market withstand a sharp sell-off."
However, despite broad gains across IT stocks, the Nifty fell for the third consecutive session, Vakil added.
Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, Infosys and Bajaj Finserv were the other big gainers.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 7,170.87 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.
"Domestic market sentiment remained subdued due to rising crude oil prices, driven by supply concerns, and a strengthening dollar index. Despite the IT sector's resilience following positive early Q3 results, broader indices bled due to uncertainties surrounding Trump policies and high valuations.
"Consolidation may persist in the near term, yet investors are closely watching the US non-farm payroll data today for further guidance," Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said.
The BSE smallcap gauge dropped 2.40 per cent and midcap index declined 2.13 per cent.
Among BSE sectoral indices, power tanked 3.07 per cent, utilities (2.86 per cent), realty (2.64 per cent), industrials (2.08 per cent), commodities (2.05 per cent) and consumer durables (1.98 per cent).
BSE Focused IT jumped 3.17 per cent, IT (2.65 per cent) and teck (2.24 per cent) were the biggest gainers.
As many as 3,167 stocks declined while 827 advanced and 84 remained unchanged on the BSE.
"Markets continued its downward trajectory as the rupee dropping to new lows against the strengthening dollar has further dampened investors' sentiment. Amid concerns of subdued economic growth and expectations of a slowdown in the quarterly earnings, investors cut their bet on banking and mid & small cap stocks.
"With expensive valuations of Indian markets at large still a concern, investors would mostly resort to stock-specific activities," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research) at Mehta Equities Ltd, said.
