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Bharti Airtel Friday said it has entered into an agreement to acquire a 4.7% stake in Indus Towers from UK’s Vodafone Group Plc in cash via a block deal. The deal will boost Airtel’s stake in Indus to 46.4%.

Not raising the reverse repo rate, or the rate at which the central bank borrows from high-street lenders, could make the benchmark ‘irrelevant’ as rates on the ground exceed those on paper, Prof JR Varma, external member of the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) says.

While Delhi-based brokerage OPG Securities is already being investigated by other government agencies, additionally 10 other brokerages and two FPIs are under the scanner.

High inflation in the United States and elsewhere makes it unlikely the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of England will fully pause what has been a joint turn towards tighter monetary policy.

Many stocks saw heavy buying, with four stocks closing in green for every stock that fell on Friday, but analysts said market participants shouldn’t read much into a single-day rebound and wait for further clarity.

Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cancelled two auctions, due on February 11 and February 18, respectively, for up to Rs 48,000 crore of bonds, citing the government’s (favourable) cash balance.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 53.39 points, or 0.16%, at the open to 33,277.22.

In another transaction, Societe Generale bought 5.3 lakh shares of Steel Exchange India at Rs 214.48 per share. The stock ended up 5 per cent at Rs 235.70 on NSE.

Gold reserves increased by USD 1.274 billion to USD 41.509 billion in the reporting week, the data showed.

“It is difficult to say where the pain level is. There is not one pain level. It is different from country to country; it is also dependent on currency and developments and interventions of the government’s subsidies. I would only say going forward we are likely to experience more volatility than in the past.”