BQuick On Nov. 25: Top 10 Stories In Under 10 Minutes  

This is a roundup of the day’s stories in brief.

1. Shiv Sena, NCP, Congress Assemble ‘162 MLAs’ In Show Of Strength

Locked in a power tussle with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra, the 'Maha Vikas Aghadi' of the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress Party decided to "parade" 162 MLAs in a Mumbai five-star hotel on Monday evening in a show of strength.

• Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said that the assembly of all its MLAs at the Grand Hyatt is undeniable visual proof of their majority.
• Let the BJP do what it wants to obstruct this alliance from assuming power, he said while addressing the MLAs.
• NCP supremo Sharad Pawar said that he is confident that their efforts will be met with success.
• He said that the ruling party has tried similar moves in other states too where they attempted to form governments without adequate numbers.
• Pawar said that their alliance is ready to face a floor test.

Follow live updates from the Maharastra power struggle here.

2. Subhash Chandra's Reign At Zee Ends

Subhash Chandra stepped down as chairman of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. a week after debt-ridden promoters’ holding in the broadcaster fell to 5 percent after selling additional stake.

• The company’s board accepted Chandra’s resignation as chairman with immediate effect, according to an exchange filing.
• He, however, stays as a non-executive director.
• This marks the end of Chandra’s role as the head of the media conglomerate he founded back in 1992.

Zee has also reconstituted its board with three new independent directors.

3. Sensex Rallies 530 Points, U.S. Stocks Rise

S&P BSE Sensex hit a fresh high driven by gains in metal stocks such as Tata Steel Ltd. and Vedanta Ltd.

• The 31-share index rose as much as 1.31 percent or 529.82 points to close at 40,889.23.
• The NSE Nifty 50 rose 1.34 percent to 12,073.75—just 15 points away from its all-time high on an intraday basis.
• The broader markets represented by the NSE Nifty 500 Index rose 1.06 percent.
• The markets may touch 12,300 in the near term as long as the index is above 12,040-mark, said Hemen Kapadia, senior vice president, KR Choksey Securities.

Follow the day’s trading action here.

U.S. equities rose along with stocks globally after China said it will tighten intellectual property rules, a move aimed at boosting the chances of a trade deal between the two largest economies.

• The three main U.S. stock gauges all opened higher after China said over the weekend it will raise penalties on intellectual property violations as it tries to smooth over a sticking point in talks.
• The dollar turned higher against most of its major peers including the yen, though it weakened versus the British pound.
• Gold depreciated 0.4 percent to $1,456.27 an ounce, the weakest in two weeks.

Get your daily fix of global markets here.

4. How Ramdeo Agrawal Deals With Polarised Markets

Individual stocks are at lifetime highs, yet personal portfolios are bleeding. But top stock pickers and investors must be able to deal with it in a better manner, emotionally and financially.

How do you then recalibrate your portfolio in such times?

• Value investing guru Raamdeo Agrawal thinks one way to choose good companies is differentiating them by management.
• “You know from the beginning that a bad management is slightly compromised, but it’s never slightly compromised. It will be completely compromised,” Agrawal told BloombergQuint.
• Agrawal also expects the next 20 years for India’s markets to be much better than the last 20.

Here’s the first chat in the Bulls Interrupted series with value investor Raamdeo Agrawal where he lists his preferred sectors.

5. Cement Prices Fall For Sixth Straight Month

Cement prices fell for the sixth straight month amid weakening demand as construction activity was affected by unseasonal rains in parts of India and a ban in the smog-hit Delhi-NCR region.

• All-India average cement prices marginally dipped by Rs 3 month-on-month to Rs 338 for a 50-kilogram bag in November, according to the survey of 12 dealers across five regions.
• Sharp price cuts were witnessed in south India, the dealers said, while attempts were made to hike prices in the north, though most of it was rolled back.
• The central region, too, witnessed price cuts in the month.

Dealers, however, said the potential exists for price hikes in north and western regions.

6. ‘Why Don’t You Just Kill Us Instead?’: Supreme Court On Air Pollution

The Supreme Court issued a notice to all states on Monday seeking a report on air quality, drinking water and garbage disposal and asked the Centre to take a concrete decision within 10 days on having smog towers in Delhi-National Capital Region to combat pollution which has shortened the lifespan of millions of citizens.

• The apex court expressed displeasure over the performance of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi to combat pollution and sought to know as to why they should not be asked to compensate people affected by bad air quality.
• “Can you treat people like this and permit them to die due to pollution,” asked the bench. “Why people are in this gas chamber? You better finish them all. This wrong is going on for long,” it said.
• The bench also sought a report from Central Pollution Control Board and the concerned states on steps taken to check pollution in rivers, including Ganga and Yamuna.

The apex court slammed the Centre and states for “blame game”.

7. Fraudsters Use UPI To Dupe Unsuspecting Customers

Payment transactions via the Unified Payment Interface or UPI have surged in the last few years. At last count, in October, over a billion transactions worth over Rs 1.9 lakh crore were done through UPI platforms.

• The increased convenience offered by the platform has drawn customers and payment service providers but also fraudsters.
• No official data on such frauds is available with the National Payments Corporation of India.
• However, reports of small-value fraud using UPI-based payment platforms have been on the rise.

Here are the different ways fraudsters are exploiting the vulnerabilities of UPI.

8. Paytm’s War Chest Gets Bigger

Mobile payments firm Paytm said it has raised $1 billion in a fresh funding round from existing investors, including Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. and China’s Ant Financial Services Group, giving it the much-needed firepower to defend its turf in India’s fast-growing but crowded payments market.

• T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., the Baltimore-based investment management company, participated in the round as a new investor, while Discovery Capital, another existing investor, also pumped in money in the Noida-based digital payments firm, Paytm said in a statement on Monday.
• The decade-old-firm, which launched its wallet business in 2014, is raising capital to protect its turf from new entrants like Google Pay, Amazon Pay and Flipkart’s PhonePe, who have aggressively expanded their share in India’s payments market.

Find out what Paytm will use the freshly raised funds for.

9. Breakfast At Tiffany For France’s Richest

France’s richest man is adding the biggest jewel yet to his collection, as Bernard Arnault clinched a deal to buy Tiffany & Co. for $16.2 billion.

• If history is any guide, the LVMH chairman will move quickly to apply his tried-and-tested formula for growth to the tarnished U.S. brand: simultaneously expanding its presence across the world, especially in promising Asian markets, while boosting exclusivity and prices.
• It’s a difficult balance, but one that Arnault has been honing over three decades as he assembled a stable of luxury labels ranging from Louis Vuitton bags to Dom Perignon Champagne to Bulgari jewelry.
• While he’s had a few missteps, including purchases of Donna Karan and Marc Jacobs, LVMH has grown into the industry’s dominant player, with a market value of 205 billion euros ($226 billion).

Here’s how LVMH could take Tiffany outside the American market on which the jeweller remains highly dependent.

10. How Beyonce And Mariah Carey Helped Airbnb Turn Into A Luxury Brand

For one week in the summer of 2015, consumers of celebrity gossip news couldn’t escape Mariah Carey’s trip to Malibu, California. Her stay at an Airbnb there, which she chronicled on Instagram, made headline writers swoon. It was covered in TMZ, Page Six and PopSugar.

• But the pop star didn’t just happen to see the listing idly scrolling through the app.
• Carey was a test run of what would become a wildly successful celebrity marketing campaign for a young, scrappy startup.
• The company had relationships with about 65 celebrities and went on to provide free lodging for several of the world’s biggest stars, including Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Beyonce.
• All the company asked for in return was that, if they had a good time, they consider posting about it online.

Read more about Airbnb's celebrity marketing program, details of which have never been previously reported.