News Announcement |
Impact Analysis |
Trump readies tariffs worth $200 billion on Chinese imports |
- This is likely to be in addition to the $50 billion of tariffs that the US has already imposed on China
- With China also imposing counter tariffs, this is likely to become a full fledged trade and currency war
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Sun Pharma gets its first USFDA approval after the warnings |
- The specialty drug that was approved was the only latanprost that is not formulated with benzalkonium chloride
- This is significant because the Halol Plant is the largest Sun Pharma facility for US exports
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RBI forex reserves again dip below the $400 mark during the week |
- With the RBI aggressively supporting the INR around 72.50/$, the dollar selling has again taken a toll on the reserves
- The RBI currently has less than 9 months of import cover and this could only limit the flexibility of RBI to intervene
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Government announces small steps to stem the fall in the rupee |
- The government eased the FPI norms on Friday and exempted Masala bonds from withholding tax to ease flows
- However, there was no announcement of a fresh issue of NRI special deposit scheme as was widely anticipated
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Reliance Infra is currently targeting an order book of Rs.50,000 crore |
- It may be recollected that the company had hived off its Mumbai Power business to Adani Transmission
- Reliance Infra will now focus largely on executing infrastructure projects in an asset light mannerCPI inflation came in sharply lower at 4.69% for the month of August
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IIP growth for July came in almost flat at the level of 6.6% |
- The IIP growth was largely driven by a spurt in manufacturing including robust growth from the capital goods segment
- With manufacturing growth robust in the case of the GDP growth too, this is a strong signal of an economic revival
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Trade deficit for August marginally narrowed to $17.4 billion |
- It may be recollected that the trade deficit had touched a high of $18.2 billion in the month of July this year
- The bigger worry for policy makers is that the current account deficit (CAD) could now widen to nearly 3% of GDP
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IL&FS could be on the brink of a major default to its bond holders |
- IL&FS also defaulted on the second round of ICDs with SIDBI with a liquidity shortfall of $475 million
- IL&FS has sold bonds worth $12.5 billion to insurances and mutual funds and that is why it is a systemic risk
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Brokers seek postponement of longer derivative trading hours |
- This is in the light of SEBI’s decision to increase trading hours till 11.30 pm to prevent trading volume exports
- The longer hours are likely to create a logistical challenge for domestic and international brokers
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Rupee rallies by over Rs.1 from its lows of the week |
- The INR had touched an all time low of 72.92/$ and had recovered to around the 71.85 level by week end
- The turnaround had less to do with RBI support and more to do with the proposed revival package of the government
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Yields on the 10-year benchmark also tapered during the week |
- The 10-year bond yields closed at 8.13% after touching a high of 8.23% during the week
- The bond yields tapered towards the latter half of the week on the back of lower CPI and WPI inflation
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Government encourages ethanol mixing in fuels |
- The government has announced 25% higher ethanol prices to encourage the mixing of ethanol with fuel
- Now sugar companies are also permitted to use sugar cane juice for ethanol rather than just molasses
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SEBI to open the gates for commodity hedging for foreign companies |
- This will be limited to directly hedging the underlying exposure of global companies in India
- These hedge orders, subject to checks and balances, can be directly placed with authorized brokers
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Turkish central bank raised the interest rates to a high of 24% |
- This was instrumental in stemming the fall in the Turkish Lira after it had lost nearly 40% against the dollar this year
- Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has already restricted the use of foreign exchange for domestic transactions
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SEBI directs accused NSE official to stay off the premises for the time being |
- This was after SEBI feared that accused employees may use their access to the premises to tamper with evidence
- The former CEO and non-executive chairman had allegedly provided preferential access to certain brokers
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Telangana CM, KC Rao, announces the dissolution of the assembly |
- This is a clear indication that the state elections may be held as early as December this year
- The current chief minister, KC Rao, would be looking to take full advantage of the progress made in the last 5 years
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Iran sees a sharp 28% fall in exports in the month of August |
- The sharp fall in exports was driven by the US sanctions which prevents other countries from importing oil from Iran
- That has led to a spike in the price of oil in the last few days as Brent has gotten closer to the $80/bbl mark
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Iran to buy 30,000 tonnes of rice from India in 2 tranches |
- This comes at a time when the Indian government is looking to reduce its oil imports from Iran over US sanctions
- This is likely to put India into a diplomatic quandary as it will have to balance its trade and diplomatic relations
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Amitabh Chaudhry to take over as the next CEO of Axis Bank |
- He will replace Shikha Sharma on January 01st when she demits office
- Amitabh comes from HDFC Life and is the second CEO after Shikha from an Insurance background
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Yes Bank to expand its retail loan portfolio by 75% in next two years |
- This will aid Yes Bank to shift its portfolio mix from a largely corporate mix to a retail mix
- This is intended to coincide with Yes Bank’s foray into the mutual funds space in a big way
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