Indian equity benchmarks set for muted open ahead of Fed policy decision
The Gift Nifty futures were trading at 24,825 points as of 7:50 a.m. IST, indicating that the Nifty 50 will open near Tuesday's close of 24,821.1.
While the Fed is expected to keep rates unchanged later in the day as it sifts through mixed economic data, comments from Chair Jerome Powell will be closely watched for economic and inflation outlook.
Higher U.S. interest rates make emerging market equities like India less attractive for foreign investors, who have been on a selling spree in India this month.
Foreign investors sold shares worth 46.37 billion rupees ($532.49 million) on Tuesday, as per provisional data. They have sold Indian shares worth $1.61 billion so far this month.
Uncertainty over India's interim trade deal with the U.S. ahead of President Donald Trump's August 1 deadline has been weighing on investor sentiment.
India is preparing to face higher U.S. tariffs — likely between 20% and 25% — on some of its exports as a temporary measure, as it holds off on fresh trade concessions ahead of Washington's August 1 deadline, two Indian government sources said.
Among stocks, Larsen & Toubro will be in focus after it beat quarterly profit estimates on Tuesday, boosted by rising overseas contracts.
STOCKS TO WATCH
** Power generator NTPC posts higher profit, but its revenue falls in the first quarter. State-owned company says it has identified potential sites for nuclear power projects
** Star Health and Allied Insurance posts lower profit along with a drop in its operating income for the first quarter
($1 = 87.0810 Indian rupees)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Scott Bessent Calls New Tax Policy 'Backdoor For Privatizing Social Security'
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday described the tax bill President Donald Trump signed into law this month as a way of eventually privatizing Social Security. The law created a new category of tax-advantaged retirement savings accounts for babies, called 'Trump Accounts,' that will be initially seeded with $1,000 from the government. Speaking at an event hosted by Breitbart News, Bessent suggested the accounts could so enamor Americans with the magic of private investing that they will eventually clamor for the privatization of the federal government's popular old-age insurance program. 'In a way, it is a backdoor for privatizing Social Security,' Bessent said in a widely circulated minute-long clip from the Breitbart event. Democrats have long accused Republicans of wanting to privatize Social Security, especially after former president George W. Bush proposed doing so in his second term. The idea was so unpopular it helped Democrats retake both the House and Senate in the 2006 midterm elections. Trump famously broke from Republican orthodoxy on Social Security, insisting that he would never touch the beloved retirement program. At the start of his second term, however, agents from Trump's 'Department of Government Efficiency' pushed for layoffs and other changes to operations of the Social Security Administration, and Democrats have claimed it was all part of a plot to privatize Social Security. So Bessent's remarks Wednesday have not passed unnoticed, even if he was imagining a hypothetical future rather than actually proposing privatization. 'Calling this a five-alarm fire is an understatement, and between Bessent's comments and the harm DOGE has already done to the agency, it's clear Trump was lying all along about protecting Social Security,' Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement. 'Like every Republican administration going back multiple generations, Trump and his billionaire cabinet want to privatize Social Security to give their Wall Street buddies a payday.'
Yahoo
2 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump imposes 25% tariff, 'penalty' on India over Russia ties
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday hit India with a 25 percent tariff on its imports, as well as a flurry of other duty hikes and an undefined "penalty" for its dealings with Russia, as the US ramps up its efforts to force an end to Moscow's war on Ukraine. Trump said Wednesday that imports from India will face 25 percent tariffs, while also announcing an unspecified "penalty" over New Delhi's purchases of Russian weapons and energy. The measures will kick in on Friday, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, adding to a bevy of other tariff hikes -- some up to 50 percent -- set to take effect the same day. In a separate post, Trump said the August 1 deadline "stands strong, and will not be extended." He had previously issued multiple delays to his so-called "reciprocal" tariffs since first announcing them in early April, while instituting an interim 10 percent baseline. The 25 percent tariff on India would be marginally lower than the rate announced in April, but is higher than those of other Asian countries that have struck preliminary trade agreements with Washington. India, the world's most populous country, was one of the first major economies to engage the Trump administration in broader trade talks. But six months later, Trump's sweeping demands and India's reluctance to fully open its agricultural and other sectors have so far prevented New Delhi from sealing a deal. "Remember, while India is our friend, we have, over the years, done relatively little business with them because their Tariffs are far too high, among the highest in the World, and they have the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary Trade Barriers of any Country," Trump said Wednesday morning. He added that India has "always bought a vast majority of their military equipment from Russia, and are Russia's largest buyer of ENERGY, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE." In addition to the 25 percent tariff, India will face "a penalty for the above," Trump said, without any specification. Read moreHost Putin faces calls to end Ukraine war at BRICS summit Later Wednesday he told reporters that talks on the tariffs were ongoing and "we'll see what happens," but he did not elaborate on the penalty. The measure comes as the 79-year-old Republican has signaled he intends to tighten US pressure on Moscow to halt fighting in Ukraine and negotiate a peace deal. On Tuesday, Trump said he was giving Russian President Vladimir Putin 10 days -- which would mean the end of next week -- to change course in Ukraine or face new tariffs. He had previously threatened to impose "secondary tariffs" that would target Russia's remaining trade partners -- such as China and India -- seeking to impede Moscow's ability to survive already sweeping Western sanctions. Despite the tariff threat, New Delhi said it was committed to continuing negotiations on "a fair, balanced and mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement." China trade talks Shortly after announcing the tariffs on New Delhi, Trump said he had struck a deal with India's archrival Pakistan to jointly develop its oil reserves. "Who knows, maybe they'll be selling oil to India some day!" he posted on Truth Social. Trump has set out to upend the global economy by trying to leverage US economic power to squeeze trading partners with tariffs and force foreign companies to move to the United States. He has already announced deal outlines with five countries -- Britain, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines -- as well as the one with the 27-nation EU. Read moreIndians lured to war in Ukraine by Russia under pretense of job opportunities US and Chinese officials held talks this week in Stockholm on extending a trade truce that has temporarily lowered tariffs from soaring triple-digits. While no deal was announced at the meetings, both sides are eyeing an extension ahead of the August 12 deadline. Meanwhile Trump announced 50 percent tariffs on Brazil -- in part to pressure the South American ally to shut down the trial of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro on coup charges. He has also instituted separate levies targeting specific sectors, including steel, copper and automobiles. Trump has imposed many of his sweeping tariffs citing emergency authorities, which are being challenged in US court. (FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Yahoo
2 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How investors went from stagflation panic to bull market euphoria
The stock market has pulled a 180 in the last few months. Investors went from worrying about stagflation to cheering the bull rally in a matter of months. Market pros say two things have helped brighten the outlook, but warn investors may be getting too excited. The market has gone through a stark transformation in the last few months. A crescendo of panic about the economic impacts of tariffs has slowly but surely given way to a chorus of euphoric voices on Wall Street calling for a new bull market. What happened? How did markets go from fearing the dreaded S-word to shrugging off the most dramatic upheaval of trade policy in a century? A few months ago, recession calls were springing up on Wall Street, and investors were fretting over stagflation, a situation where inflation remains stubbornly high while economic growth slows, and which economists warn is even worse than a normal recession. Those fears have seemingly been wiped off the table, even more so now that second-quarter GDP data released on Wednesday showed the US economy returned to growth mode this spring. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and other forecasters have lifted their economic outlooks in recent weeks, and most investors now expect the economy to avoid a recession, with 65% of global fund managers saying they expected a soft landing, according to a July BofA survey. Meanwhile, meme stocks have come roaring back, another sign that animal spirits have returned to markets. And yet, Donald Trump's tariffs are still on. The US tariff rate is about 18.2%, according to the latest update from the Yale Budget Lab. That's the highest the overall tariff rate has been since 1934, the researchers said. "If you'd had told me a year ago or six months ago that we were going to have 15% across-the-board tariffs, I would have thought the S&P 500 would be considerably lower than where it is now. I certainly wouldn't think it would be making new highs," Doug Peta, the chief US investment strategist at BCA Research, told Business Insider. Market pros who spoke to BI say two things led the market to stage a dramatic turnaround. Tariffs aren't as bad as feared The fact that tariffs are still on hardly matters to the market. It's more so that they aren't as bad as initially feared, Peta said. Stocks have climbed as Trump has announced more trade deals with key partners, generally setting tariff rates below what he had initially proposed. "Perhaps it is a tribute to the administration's salesmanship, that if you tell people things are going to be really horrible — it's going to be 50%, it's going to be 125%, which is what we got to during the tit-for-tat with China — and then you say, 'Oh, you know what? It's just going to be 15%.' I think markets have really relaxed on that," Peta said. And even when Trump has dialed up his tariff threats, like when he posted letters to 23 countries on Truth Social, markets have been confident in the TACO Trade, Peta added. He was referring to the idea that investors have been buying stocks despite the president's unfriendly policies, due to the assumption that Trump Always Chickens Out. Paul Hickey, the co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group, told BI that the apocalyptic mood that accompanied Liberation Day was due to the "shock value" of Trump's tariffs. "Market doesn't just rally 20% in a short period of time for nothing," he said. "Usually there was either a major event to cause that, or else there was a major sell-off beforehand where there was an overreaction." The improbably strong US economy And then there's the economy, which has bucked calls for a dire slowdown alongside higher tariffs fueled by inflation. While fears of stagflation were running rampant several months ago, GDP is expanding again after contracting in the first quarter. Bank of America recently dialed down its stagflation calls, saying it sees a number of reasons the economy could thrive in the coming quarters, including Trump's pro-growth agenda and big capex plans among US companies. Meanwhile, inflation has drifted slightly higher but overall price growth is relatively close to the Fed's 2% inflation target. The final and most important leg of any stock market rally—corporate earnings—has also been holding up well. Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported results so far this quarter, 80% have beaten earnings estimates, according to the latest update from FactSet. "People were expecting just terrible commentary from companies reporting and a weakness in the economy and that didn't materialize," Hickey said. Is there a shoe to drop? It is still possible that the full impact of tariffs has yet to be felt in markets and the economy. "I think most right now are just sort of waiting for the effect of the tariffs to become more clear," Parag Thatte, director of global asset allocation and US equity strategy at Deutsche Bank, told BI. That also means there's a chance investors could be getting ahead of themselves, BCA's Peta said. "I do think some of the optimism is unwarranted," he told BI, adding that he was skeptical some of the US's recent trade deals would counterbalance the negative growth impact of tariffs. Talk of a pullback has been swirling on Wall Street since major indexes climbed back to record highs. Evercore ISI, Stifel, Pimco, and HSBC are among the firms that have recently flagged the risk of a stock correction, even as major indexes power past record after record in the last several weeks. In the short term, Hickey also believes optimism could soon start to fade, especially considering that the market is entering historically weak seasonal stretch from late July through September. "The pendulum has really shifted," Hickey said of the market's seasonal backdrop. "It wouldn't surprise us to see the market rally pause in the short term." Read the original article on Business Insider
