PremiumThe standoff, along with the worry that tightening Federal Reserve monetary policy could choke growth in the world’s biggest economy, raise the likelihood of more swings in markets in an already volatile year.
India has extended a 1% duty concession for gold imports from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for up to 200 tonnes of inbound shipments under a comprehensive free trade pact signed on Friday.
“We are a major importer of gold and import about 800 tonnes of gold every year. We have given the UAE a tariff-rate quota (TRQ) of 200 tonnes. Tariff in perpetuity will be 1% less than whatever the tariff is charged from the rest of the world. So UAE has a 1% advantage in gold bars," commerce secretary BVR Subrahmanyam said in a briefing on Saturday.
India imported about 70 tonnes of gold from the UAE in 2020-21. With this concession, duty on yellow metal imported from UAE will effectively be 9% instead of 10%.
As a result of the move, Dubai could replace Zurich as the biggest yellow metal exporter to India over time. Switzerland's Zurich currently accounts for more than half of gold imports to India.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed in principle to a summit over Ukraine, the U.S. and French leaders said, offering a possible path out of one of the most dangerous European crises in decades.
The office of French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement on Monday he had pitched both leaders on a summit over "security and strategic stability in Europe." The White House said in a statement that Biden had accepted the meeting "in principle" but only "if an invasion hasn't happened."
"We are always ready for diplomacy," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. "We are also ready to impose swift and severe consequences should Russia instead choose war."
Messages seeking comment from the Kremlin and from the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were not immediately returned early Monday.
IndiGo’s co-founder Rakesh Gangwal resigned from the company’s board on Friday as part of a plan to gradually pare his stake in India’s largest airline, weeks after shareholders voted to lift stake-sale curbs on promoters, signalling the end of a bitter public feud with co-founder Rahul Bhatia.
In a letter to the board of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, the operator of IndiGo, Gangwal expressed his desire to reduce his nearly 37% stake in the airline over the next five years and asked that no unpublished price-sensitive information be shared with him.
He, however, left the option of returning as a board member open. “Sometime in the future, I shall consider participating again as a board member," he said, adding that “it’s only natural to someday think about diversifying one’s holdings". (Read here)
It is advisable not to trade aggressively and should avoid carrying positions overnight. As far as levels are concerned, we witnessed some nervousness around 17450 – 17500. So if bulls have to regain any strength, they need to surpass these levels with some authority.
On the flipside, 17000 followed by 16800 is to be seen as make or break levels. In case of any aberration on the global front, the market will have to face challenging times after sliding below this sacrosanct support. Let’s be hopeful and keep a close watch on all these developments.
India is set to unveil an ambitious ₹1 trillion programme to build 5,795km of national highways in 117 so-called aspirational districts, two officials aware of the matter said.
The road ministry has identified 221 projects for expansion, in addition to the 5,566km of highways already being built in these districts, comprising 222 projects at a total cost of ₹66,000 crore.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will spend a total of ₹1.04 trillion on the new highway projects, the officials cited above said on condition of anonymity.
The four-year-old Aspirational Districts Programme aims to quickly transform least-developed districts through the convergence of central and state schemes, the collaboration of central- and state-level officials, and monthly district rankings. (Read here)
The government will hire a transaction adviser to help manage the conversion of interest dues related to deferred spectrum payments and adjusted gross revenue into equity in Vodafone Idea Ltd, a senior government official said.
The adviser, along with the finance ministry and the department of telecommunications, will determine how much the government will hold in the third-largest telecom operator, a second government official said, requesting anonymity.
Vodafone Idea had proposed the government convert interest dues amounting to ₹16,000 crore for a 35.8% stake in the struggling operator. (Read here)
Retirement fund body Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) added 1.46 million subscribers on a net basis in December 2021, an increase of 16.4% compared to the year-ago period, according to the latest payroll data.
The provisional payroll data of the EPFO on Sunday showed that the EPFO had added 1.25 million net subscribers during December 2020. The net subscriber addition in December has increased by 19.98% as compared to the previous month of November 2021, a labour ministry statement said.
The net subscriber addition in November 2021 was revised downwards to 1.22 million from 1.39 million provisional estimates released in January 2022. Of the 1.46 million net subscribers added in December 2021, 0.91 million members have been enrolled under EPF & MP Act, 1952, for the first time.
Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded 104.50 points lower at 17,175.50 in early deals on Monday, signalling that Indian benchmarks were headed for a lower start.
Asian stocks pared earlier losses Monday after President Joe Biden and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed to a summit on condition Russia doesn’t invade Ukraine.
Nasdaq 100 contracts erased an earlier drop of over 1% and S&P 500 futures also turned green. MSCI Inc.’s Asia-Pacific gauge came off its lows, though key markets including Japan, Hong Kong and China still posted modest losses.
Earlier, the U.S. has told allies that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could target multiple cities beyond the capital, Kyiv. Biden said on Friday he’s convinced Putin has decided to move against Ukraine. Moscow continues to deny it plans to invade.
The standoff, along with the worry that tightening Federal Reserve monetary policy could choke growth in the world’s biggest economy, raise the likelihood of more swings in markets in an already volatile year.
S&P 500 futures rose 0.6%., while Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.5%.
Japan’s Topix index fell 0.6%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index was steady, South Korea’s Kospi index fell 0.6%, Hang Seng Index fell 0.6%, and Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.3%.
On Friday on the Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.68%, the S&P 500 lost 0.72% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.23%.
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