It was a historic day for Indian equity indices on Friday as Sensex, Nifty, and Nifty Bank closed at an all-time high.

At closing, Sensex was up 1,359 points, or 1.63 per cent, at 84,544 and Nifty was up 375 points, or 1.48 per cent, at 25,790. Nifty Bank was up 755 points, or 1.42 per cent, at 53,793.

Intraday, all three benchmark indices made a new all-time high of 84,694, 25,849 and 54,066 respectively.

Buying was also seen in the midcap and smallcap stocks.

The weather bureau of Laos has issued a warning urging residents to prepare for potential flooding as rainstorms are forecast to sweep through some regions in the country.

Heavy rain accompanied by wind gusts will continue throughout the country from Friday to Sunday, bringing further risk of flooding and landslides, according to a report issued on Friday by the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, news agency reported.

The weather bureau has advised people to be highly vigilant about potential flooding, particularly in the central and southern provinces.

Local authorities advised people to prepare to move their belongings and animals to safe places while tracking weather forecasts.

Bucking the trend amid persisting global challenges, the ready-made garment (RMG) exports from the country clocked 11.9 per cent growth in August, compared to the same period last year. The cumulative RMG exports for the April-August period stood at $6,395 million (about $6.4 billion).

The apparel exports kept its growth momentum despite the global headwinds and persisting red sea crisis and other challenges such as logistic cost and global inflation, according to the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC).

Sudhir Sekhri, Chairman of AEPC, said that growing at an average of 7.12 per cent in the last five months (April to August 2024-25), RMG exports have bucked the trends of falling merchandise exports which has touched 13 months’ low in August.

“It is very encouraging to see the resilience of the industry. With focus on product quality as well as environmental and social compliance the industry is poised to take a leap into high growth trajectory and be a major global player of garment exports,” he mentioned.

Actor Karan Wahi, best known for ‘Dill Mill Gayye’ and ‘Baat Hamari Pakki Hai’, has shared a picture from his first-leg training session.

Taking to his Instagram Stories, Karan, who has 3.3 million followers shared a mirror selfie from the gym.

Karan captioned the picture, “Its been almost 2 months to my knee injury. Here we are trying my first Leg training session. One step At A Time”.

In the picture, Karan was seen wearing a dark blue printed t-shirt with a pair of denim basketball shorts and white sneakers along with a printed cap. The 38-year-old actor was seen wearing a blue colored knee-cap on his right leg as well.

Meanwhile, Karan is best known for his roles as Ranveer in the teen drama series 'Remix', and Dr. Siddhant Modi in the medical youth show 'Dill Mill Gayye'. He has also participated in 'Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 8', and 'Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi-Made in India'.

A car driven by a man in his 70s smashed into a hamburger restaurant in northern Seoul on Friday, killing one passerby and injuring five others, including the driver himself, officials said.

The crash occurred at 10:32 a.m. local time near Mia Station when the Hyundai Genesis sedan suddenly dashed from a side road into a six-lane main road, hurdled the guardrail set up at the centre of the road before crashing straight into the hamburger store, news agency reported.

A passerby was struck and taken to a hospital in a state of cardiac arrest but later died, police said.

The number of digital payment transactions volume in India surged from 2,071 crore in fiscal 2017-18 to 18,737 crore in fiscal 2023-24 at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 44 per cent, the government said on Friday.

Furthermore, during the last five months (April-August) of the current financial year 2024-25, the transaction volume has reached 8,659 crore, according to the Ministry of Finance data.

The value of transactions has grown from Rs 1,962 lakh crore to Rs 3,659 lakh crore in FY24, at a CAGR of 11 per cent. Additionally, in the last 5 months of FY25, the total transaction value has surged to an impressive Rs 1,669 lakh crore, according to the Department of Financial Services (DFS) under the ministry.

Meanwhile, UPI transactions volume grew to 13,116 crore in FY 2023-24 from 92 crore in FY 2017-18 at a CAGR of 129 per cent. The value of UPI transactions reached Rs 200 lakh crore in FY23-24 from Rs 1 lakh crore in FY17-18, a CAGR growth of 138 per cent.

The retail inflation rate for farm and rural workers fell to 5.96 per cent and 6.08 per cent, respectively, in August compared to 6.17 per cent and 6.20 per cent registered in July, the government said on Friday.

The All-India Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPI-AL) and Rural Labourers (CPI-RL) registered an increase of 7 points each in August 2024, reaching levels of 1,297 and 1,309, respectively.

The CPI-AL and CPI-RL were 1,290 points and 1,302 points, respectively, in July, according to the Labour Ministry statement.

"The year-on-year inflation rates based on CPI-AL and CPI–RL for this month were recorded at 5.96 per cent and 6.08 per cent, compared to 7.37 per cent and 7.12 per cent in August 2023. The corresponding figures for July 2024 were 6.17 per cent for CPI-AL and 6.20 per cent for CPI-RL," as per the statement.

Placebo Club, Faculty of Pharmacy, Desh Bhagat University, Mandi Gobindgarh organized the “4th National Pharmacovigilance Week 2024” on the theme of ‘Building ADR Reporting Culture for Patients Safety’.The main objective of the activity was to learn potential safety issues, improve the development of safer medicines and patient safety and a play ondramatize real-life scenarios to emphasize the consequences of unreported ADRs and the pivotal role healthcare professionals and patients play in ensuring drug safety.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) would provide financial assistance of Rs 530 crore to the Tripura government to upgrade the drinking water supply in the state’s 12 cities benefiting around four lakh people, officials said here on Friday.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Friday laid the foundation of the ‘Mukhyamantri Nagar Unnayan Prakalp’ (Chief Minister’s urban development scheme) at a function in southern Tripura’s Gomati district headquarters Udaipur.

The Chief Minister said that after the completion of the ambitious plan within three years, a major drinking water problem of over 75,000 families in 12 cities in the state would be resolved.

He said that 12 cities, where the ADB-funded ambitious scheme would be implemented include, Udaipur, Amarpur, Belonia, Melaghar, Bishramganj, Khowai, Ranir Bazar, Mohanpur, Dharmanagar, Kailashhar, Kumarghat and Ambassa.

A soldier was killed and five others injured in a road accident in J&K’s Kathua district on Friday, officials said.

"The vehicle carrying army personnel went out of the driver’s control and skidded off the road after which it dropped into a gorge at Sukrala Mata Ashram road. One soldier died in this accident while 5 others were injured," an official said.

The injured personnel were shifted to Billawar sub-district hospital, where doctors referred them to the army hospital in Pathankot town of neighbouring Punjab. They were airlifted to Pathankot in a helicopter.

"The soldier killed in this accident has been identified as Sepoy Ram Kishore while the injured soldiers were identified as Sepoys Bhupinder Singh, Mahipal Singh, Anil Singh, Sunder Pandya and Lokinder Singh.

Police has taken cognisance of the incident, officials said.