| News Announcement |
Impact Analysis |
| The US and China get closer to signing Phase 1 of trade deal |
- While the deal is yet to be finalized, it entails China doubling its imports of agri products from the US
- In return, the US has put off the December 15 tariff hike and also promised to cut previous tariff levels to half
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| CPI inflation shoots up in November to a 40-month high of 5.54% |
- Inflation was sharply led up by food inflation at 8.66% and within that vegetables inflation at 36%
- Core inflation and fuel inflation remained subdued, but OPEC developments also pose a risk to oil inflation
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| IIP growth for October comes in the negative at (-3.8%) |
- This is the third successive month of negative growth in IIP and raises questions about the Q3 GDP growth
- With 18 out of 23 industry groups in negative, we saw negative growth in mining, manufacturing and electricity
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| Uniform stamp duty on equity trades takes effect on January 09, 2020 |
- This would mean a standard rate of stamp duty payable to the exchange for each sub-product category
- However, the only catch is that off-market trades via demat transfers will now also come under the stamp duty net
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| The US raises some concerns about the Citizenship Bill passed in India |
- The US has underlined that India must protect the interests of the minority community as per constitutional commitments
- The US ambassador has also underlined the need to respect standard practices of international religious freedom
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| Boris Johnson drives the Conservatives to a record victory in UK polls |
- This was the most emphatic win for the Conservative party in 40 years since Thatcher last managed it
- This win will mean that the BREXIT commitment of January 31, 2020 should now be a smooth affair
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| RBI to extend bank like vigil for NBFCs and also cooperative banks |
- This has been necessitated by recent cases like PMC Bank, DHFL and IL&FS; leading to huge losses
- This would include capital adequacy and also reporting of divergence in NPAs with RBI audit
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| India trade deficit for November narrows to $12.2 billion |
- Exports fell for the fourth successive month and imports were lower for the sixth successive month
- Apart from auto production cuts, the shift to BS-VI norms has also put pressure on the auto components industry
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| SEBI denies any relief to lenders of Karvy against pledged shares |
- These shares had been illegally pledged by Karvy with banks and SEBI had ordered shares to be transferred back
- Banks had approached SAT against this decision but SEBI has refused any kind of relief as the pledge was illegal
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| Brent Crude nears 3-month high on global trade optimism |
- The oil prices were buoyed by the likelihood of a US-China trade deal as well as outcome of UK elections
- In addition, the oil prices also got a boost from OPEC decision to enhance the supply cuts to 1.7 million bpd
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| PMO and Finance Ministry to hold pre-budget meeting to boost economy |
- Economy boost is likely to be the big agenda with inflation sharply up and IIP remaining in negative territory
- The budget may focus on big fiscal push with monetary measures having limited leeway now
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| OPEC pegs supply cuts at an additional 5 lakh barrels per day |
- This move increases the supply cut from 1.2 million bpd to 1.7 million barrels per day on a consistent basis
- This will act as a solid counter weight to the rising inventories in the US and keep oil prices buoyant
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| Nirmala Sitharaman rules out any talks on GST rate hike for now |
- In the last GST Council meet, the members had hinted at a hike in GST rates to make up for falling collections
- Economists had protested that any hike in GST rates would only add to the inflationary fires
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| Forex reserves with the RBI touch an all time high of $453 billion |
- With limited RBI intervention required in currency markets, inflows are directly adding to the RBI kitty
- Now the reserves are sufficient to cover more than 12 months of imports, making the comfort at par with BRICS
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| Ambit Capital pays Rs.6 crore to settle insider trading case with SEBI |
- It was a plea bargain wherein the penalty was paid without admitting or denying the allegations made by SEBI
- The insider trading case pertained to Manappuram Finance, where Ambit had issued a Sell note on inside information
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| CAG has pointed to irregularities in GST assessment in the state of Gujarat |
- According to CAG, these include application of wrong rates, allowance of wrong exemptions and excess grant of ITC
- The government has tightened its screws on GST collections after they have been falling short consistently
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| US law firm, Schall, files class action suit against Infosys |
- This class action suit pertains to whistle blower allegations that CEO and CFO concealed key information on deals
- Class action suit is normally taken up when the public at large has lost money due to actions of corporates
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| Ujjivan SFB stock gets stellar listing but corrects post listing |
- The IPO listed at a premium of 58% to the issue price after it got oversubscribed by nearly 170 times in the IPO
- However, the huge HNI oversubscription (largely by funding) has led to post listing pressure on the stock price
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| Metal stocks gain in the week on China stimulus hope |
- With trade deal imminent, the metal stocks benefited on hopes that China stimulus would increase metal demand
- Metal stocks have been under pressure for some time and now base and industrial metals have started to gain
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| Tata Motors has gained after BREXIT looked certain and imminent |
- With the Tory government voted back to power with a majority, BREXIT on 31st January looks very likely
- That gives a greater degree of certainty to BREXIT and allows companies like JLR to start preparations
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| Moody’s pegs India’s full year GDP forecast at 5.6% for 2019-20 |
- This is the highest growth forecast for the full year in recent times after RBI downgraded full year growth to 5%
- With 4.75% growth in H1, a full year growth of 5.6% would entail a herculean effort for the Indian economy
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