PremiumUS Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday said rates would likely be raised by only 25 basis points this month, and the war in Ukraine has made the outlook "highly uncertain". However, Powell did warn the Fed might have to hike more aggressively if inflation kept rising.
Telecom disputes appellate tribunal TDSAT has ruled the government cannot exempt state-owned companies from paying their share of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) on the basis that they get only a small portion of their revenues from telecom-related services.
The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) also said that an exemption can be given to the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) only if the same is extended to private sector players.
The order dated February 28 pertains to the more than ₹4 lakh crore of revenue foregone by the government after the Supreme Court in October 24, 2019, dismissed telcos' petitions challenging the AGR demand by DoT.
Fitch and Moody's on Wednesday each downgraded Russia's sovereign credit rating by six notches to "junk" status, saying Western sanctions threw into doubt Russia's ability to service its debt and would weaken its economy.
Russia's financial markets have been thrown into turmoil by sanctions imposed over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two. The invasion has triggered a flurry of credit rating moves and dire warnings about the impact on Russia's economy. S&P lowered Russia's rating to junk status last week.
It also prompted index providers FTSE Russell and MSCI to announce Wednesday that they will remove Russian equities from all their indexes, after a top MSCI executive earlier this week called Russia's stock market "uninvestable".
Oil prices extended their rally on Thursday, with Brent rising above $116 a barrel, as trade disruption and shipping issues from Russian sanctions over the Ukraine crisis sparked supply worries while U.S. crude stocks fell to multi-year lows.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies including Russia have decided to maintain an increase in output by 400,000 barrels per day in March despite the price surge, ignoring the Ukraine crisis during their talks and snubbing calls from consumers for more crude.
Brent crude futures rallied to $116.83 a barrel, the highest since August 2013. The contract was at $116.60 a barrel, up $3.67 in Asian trade.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $113.01 a barrel, up $2.41 after touching a fresh 11-year high of $113.31 a barrel.
Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange rose 41 points, or 0.25%, to 16,656.50, hinting at a positive start for Indian benchmarks.
Asian shares crept higher on Thursday after reassuring comments from the Federal Reserve helped Wall Street rally, though the war in Ukraine sent oil and resource prices spiralling ever higher in a grim omen for global inflation.
Western nations tightened sanctions on Russia as Ukraine's second biggest city, Kharkiv, suffered heavy bombardment on Wednesday and dozens of countries referred Moscow to be probed for potential war crimes.
Sanctions imposed on Russia have caused traders to back away from its resources, stoking fears of shortfalls in energy, grains and metals. Brent crude scaled $116 a barrel, and a commodity index is at record high.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan nudged up 0.4% and away from its recent 15-month low. Japan's Nikkei added 1.0%, while the rush to commodities lifted resource-rich Australia 0.9%.
After bouncing overnight, S&P 500 stock futures were down a fraction, while Nasdaq futures eased 0.2%.
Japan’s Topix index rose 1%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index gained 0.6%, South Korea’s Kospi index rose 1.3%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index advanced 0.3%, and China’s Shanghai Composite index rose 0.3%.
Overnight, Wall Street took another sharp swing Wednesday, this time back to rally mode, as stocks and Treasury yields rose even as U.S. crude oil prices climbed to the highest level in more than a decade.
The S&P 500 rose 1.9%, recouping its losses from earlier in the week, after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he supports a more modest rise in interest rates this month than some investors had feared.
The S&P 500 closed 80.28 points higher to 4,386.54. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 596.40 points, or 1.8%, to 33,891.35, while the Nasdaq composite gained 219.56 points, or 1.6%, to 13,752.02.
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