India's equity benchmarks likely to open flat in line with Asian peers
The Gift Nifty futures were trading at 25,186 points, as of 8:13 a.m. IST, indicating that the Nifty 50 (.NSEI), opens new tab will open around Friday's close of 25,149.85.
MSCI's broadest index for Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS), opens new tab was trading flat on the day.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday said he would impose a 30% tariff on most imports from the European Union and Mexico from August 1, even as they are locked in long negotiations.
Indian equity benchmarks fell about 1.2% last week, weighed down by uncertainty over a potential U.S. trade deal and weak earnings from India's top software exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS.NS), opens new tab.
Investors will remain focused on earnings season with HCL Technologies (HCLT.NS), opens new tab, Ola Electric Mobility (OLAE.NS), opens new tab, Tata Technologies (TATE.NS), opens new tab, and other companies scheduled to report their numbers on the day.
Meanwhile, sources told Reuters that U.S.-based Jane Street has deposited $567 million in an escrow account as per India regulatory directive, but one of the sources said the trading firm does not intend to start trading in the Indian options market.
Jane Street did not immediately respond to a Reuters email seeking confirmation of the news.
The markets regulator's ban on Wall Street trading giant Jane Street had squeezed volumes in the country's options market last week and hit shares of exchange operator BSE (BSEL.NS), opens new tab and broking firms.
** Supermarket chain operator Avenue Supermarts (AVEU.NS), opens new tab reports a small decline in first-quarter profit, as higher operating costs and rising competition from quick commerce players eat into margins
** VIP Industries (VIPI.NS), opens new tab says Chairman Dilip Piramal and his family enter in an agreement with the Multiples Consortium to sell up to 32% stake in the company, triggering an open offer
** NCC (NCCL.NS), opens new tab wins 22.69 billion rupees ($264.36 million) order from Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority
($1 = 85.8300 Indian rupees)
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Reuters
19 minutes ago
- Reuters
Hong Kong stablecoin bill's client identity rules spark industry concern
HONG KONG, Aug 7 (Reuters) - The strict customer identification rules mandated in Hong Kong's new stablecoin law could hinder adoption of the digital currency and the city's competitiveness in global digital finance markets, sources from the industry said. Hong Kong's long-awaited stablecoin ordinance took effect on August 1 and positions Hong Kong as one of the first markets globally to regulate fiat-backed stablecoin issuers, giving it an early-mover advantage that helps its bid to become a virtual asset hub. But the finalized know-your-customer (KYC) rules which require issuers to verify the identity of every stablecoin holder go against the principles of secrecy and privacy in cryptocurrency markets and have caught the industry off guard, the sources said. The de facto central bank, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), said such measures are essential for combating money laundering and terrorism financing as the regulator wants to take a more prudent approach at the initial stage. Market participants warned that the level of scrutiny could discourage usage. 'This is a bit too strict and not good for acquiring users,' said Bo Tang, head and assistant director at HKUST Institute for Financial Research. Tang said such rules could mean if a business is doing cross-border payments using Hong Kong-regulated stablecoins, the client - as a receiver of stablecoins - would need to open an account in Hong Kong just to pass KYC checks. If stablecoin transactions become nearly fully real name-based, they lose most advantages over traditional payments such as efficiency and privacy, Tang said. Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a constant value and are usually pegged to a fiat currency such as the U.S. dollar. Their underlying blockchain technology enables instant, borderless and round-the-clock transfer of funds at low cost, giving stablecoins the potential to disrupt traditional daily money moves and cross-border payment systems. Some say Hong Kong's KYC rules are tougher than those in the U.S., where President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act in July, the country's first major crypto law with a focus on stablecoins. 'It's not just KYC for those with accounts with the stablecoin issuer, it's KYC for every stablecoin holder,' said Ricky Xie, a Hong Kong-based crypto trader, noting that many overseas users may opt out because of this. Market watchers expect the high compliance bar could exclude a wide range of existing stablecoin users who rely on so-called unhosted wallets for trading, usually anonymous. The main HKMA-regulated stablecoins users are likely to be mainland Chinese companies using them for cross-border money transfers, trade, payments and remittances, said Peter Brewin, PwC's digital assets Asia lead. HKMA expects the first batch of Hong Kong stablecoin issuer licences will be granted early next year and emphasized that only "a handful" of licences will be granted. HKUST's Tang said HKMA's tight regulation might be to contain the frenzy in Hong Kong among investors chasing the rally in companies with plans to invest in stablecoins and digital assets. High-flying stablecoin concept stocks such as ZhongAn Online ( opens new tab and Bright Smart Securities & Commodities ( opens new tab gave back much of their gains after the stablecoin bill came into effect.
Spectator
19 minutes ago
- Spectator
What Putin wants from his meeting with Trump
With just a day to go until the expiry of his ultimatum to Vladimir Putin to halt the war on Ukraine or face dire consequences, Donald Trump has once more reset the clock. Trump intends to meet in person with President Vladimir Putin of Russia as soon as next week, the New York Times has reported. That summit will be followed by a second, trilateral meeting including Trump, Putin and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, Trump reportedly told top European leaders in a conference call on Wednesday night. The announcement came after Trump's envoy, real state developer Steve Witkoff, met Putin for three hours of talks at the Kremlin. Trump wrote on social media that he had 'updated some of our European Allies' about the Witkoff talks. 'Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come.' A week before, Trump had professed himself 'disappointed' with Putin's continuous broken promises and moved up a previous 50-day deadline for the Kremlin to cease fire to just eight days – an ultimatum due to expire this Friday. And just hours before he hinted that he was ready for direct talks with Putin, Trump followed through on a threat to impose secondary sanctions on countries which imported Russian oil. 'India … doesn't care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine,' Trump said before announcing a 25 per cent tariff on Indian exports to the US due to begin in 21 days. Whether Trump will now actually impose those tariffs in light of his new plan to open talks with Putin is unclear. Trump, famously, considers himself a master of the art of the deal. He favours high-profile, face-to-face summit meetings with world leaders, whether friend or foe. In 2018 he met Putin in Helsinki for a long meeting that cosplayed the high-stakes summits between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev that laid the groundwork for the end of the Cold War. But no deals resulted from that Trump-Putin summit, despite the fact that Putin was at the time already illegally occupying Crimea and his proxies controlled parts of eastern Ukraine. Instead, the main soundbite was Trump appearing to side with Putin over his own intelligence establishment on the subject of Russian interference in the 2016 US elections. 'No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant,' wrote the late Republican Senator John McCain, decrying Trump's toadying to Putin as a 'disgraceful performance'. This time, the stakes for a Trump-Putin summit will be much higher. People are dying every day, Russian troops are relentlessly advancing, and Ukraine faces critical shortages of air defence missiles and military manpower. Trump has repeatedly vowed to bring an end to the conflict in Ukraine, and has made several threats to impose devastating sanctions on Moscow's oil and gas clients if Putin does not comply. The pressure will be on for Trump to actually persuade, cajole or force Putin to stop his air and ground offensives in Ukraine. It's significant that Europe will be completely sidelined from the proposed talks. Clearly, Trump expects to present whatever he agrees with Putin to the rest of the world as a fait accompli. But in one important sense, direct talks between Washington and Moscow will break a deadlock. Putin has resisted being seen to bow before US pressure. At the same time, the full-scale sanctions threatened by Trump would wreak chaos on the world economy by removing the 10 per cent of the world's oil supply provided by Russia from markets, sending energy prices spiralling. The result of this standoff has been a near-farcical game where Putin pretended to negotiate while Trump pretended to assemble a formidable battery of imaginary sanctions. That phase of phoney negotiations will soon be over. The next question is what incentive Putin will have to end a war that he believes that he is winning. Russian forces appear to be accelerating their encirclement of the strategic railhead of Pokrovsk in Donbas and are advancing towards Kharkiv. At the same time political unrest in Kyiv is growing, both over Zelensky's disastrously misguided attempt to bring anticorruption agencies under his control as well as the forced conscription of men into Ukraine's severely depleted army. Desertions of Ukrainian troops from the front line are, reportedly, soaring. Head of Ukrainian Military Intelligence General Kyrylo Budanov has warned that the country could face a military collapse this summer. Putin can be forgiven for believing that time is on his side. The stark answer to what Putin wants is that he is not fighting for land but rather is fighting to subordinate Ukraine and, as he sees it, prevent it from becoming a threatening Western proxy. That's importantly different to destroying Ukraine, occupying Ukraine, exterminating all Ukrainians, or other hysterical assessments of the Kremlin's intentions. But Putin has been very clear from the start of hostilities that he will not countenance Ukraine as a member of Nato. He also demands limits on the Ukrainian military and the restoration of rights to Russian language speakers and adherents of the Moscow-loyal party of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Most importantly, Putin wants regime change in Kyiv, which means the end of Zelensky – who is already six-and-a-half years into a five-year presidential term. How many of Putin's demands will Trump concede during their face-to-face negotiations? Many Ukrainians will ask what right Trump has to negotiate over their heads – exactly what President Joe Biden vowed never to do? Many Ukrainians fear that they are about to be sold down the river in a great power stitch-up reminiscent of the 1945 Yalta carve-up of post-war Europe. 'The war must end [but] it must be done honestly,' tweeted Zelensky on Wednesday after a conference call with Trump alongside other European leaders. 'We all need a lasting and reliable peace. Russia must end the war that it itself started.' Trump's apparent answer to Europeans' concerns has been to symbolically offer a follow-up trilateral meeting involving himself, Putin and Zelensky to give at least an illusion of Ukrainian participation. That seems to be a recipe for disaster. Putin hates Zelensky for defying him and turning the short, victorious war he planned into a long and bloody quagmire. Zelensky hates Putin for massacring and abusing thousands of his people – as well as for sending murder squads to Kyiv with orders to murder him in the first days of the war. Zelensky and Trump had a cordial meeting in Rome at Pope Francis' funeral – but the bad blood after Zelensky's humiliation in the Oval Office in February persists. Meeting Zelensky would legitimise him as the leader of a sovereign Ukraine, which is anathema to Putin. In short, the meeting is as unlikely as it would be disastrous if it ever happened. The good news is that in calling for direct talks with Putin, Trump has offered a quick route to the end of the war. The bad news is that it's likely to be on Putin's terms.
Reuters
20 minutes ago
- Reuters
Japan's Topix hits record high on easing US tariff worries, domestic firms' outlook
TOKYO, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Japan's Topix index closed at a record high on Thursday after worries about the impact of U.S. tariffs eased, and increased investor optimism about strong performance of domestic firms. The broader Topix (.TOPX), opens new tab rose 0.72% to 2,987.92. The Nikkei (.N225), opens new tab climbed 0.65% to 41,059.15. Both indexes rose for a third consecutive session. The three-day rally eclipsed a sharp decline on Monday, when the Nikkei posted its largest drop in two months. "The market was too bearish, with concerns about the U.S. tariff impact on domestic firms. But that sentiment was reversed," said Seiichi Suzuki, chief equity market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Intelligence Laboratory. "And the weak economic data in the U.S. raised expectations for the Federal Reserve's rate cut, which supported sentiment of both U.S. and Japanese equities," said Suzuki. Sony Group (6758.T), opens new tab jumped 4% to provide the biggest boost to the Topix, after the game and camera maker raised its full-year operating profit forecast by 4%. The Topix index held its momentum even as heavyweight Toyota Motor (7203.T), opens new tab slipped 1.5% after the automaker cut its full-year operating profit forecast by 16%. Shares of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.T), opens new tab rose 1.85% and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T), opens new tab gained 1.35%. M3's shares surged 22% after Goldman Sachs raised the target price for the medical services platform operator to 2,300 yen from 2,250 yen. Cosmetic maker Shiseido (4911.T), opens new tab jumped 11%. Chip-making equipment maker Tokyo Electron (8035.T), opens new tab fell for a third day, falling 2.46% on Thursday to weigh on the Nikkei the most. Chip-testing equipment maker Advantest (6857.T), opens new tab reversed early losses to end 0.3% higher.
