Friday, March 20
US Senator Lindsey Graham on Monday (local time) claimed that India has "earned" the reduction in tariffs under the newly announced India-US trade deal, linking the move to the decrease in Russian oil purchases by New Delhi amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.In a post on X, Graham praised US President Donald Trump's approach, suggesting that economic pressure on Russia's energy customers is beginning to have an impact, citing the recent trade deal with India in which Washington reduced tariffs on India to 18 per cent."Well played, President Trump. I think your message about ending this war--by having Putin's customers who prop up his war machine have to recalculate--is working," he said.The Senator claimed that New Delhi's conduct had justified the tariff reduction, stating that the other nat
ET Intelligence Group: Though foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) intensified their selling in the Indian secondary equity market in the two months to January, their outflow at $16.7 billion ( ₹1.5 lakh crore) in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year (FY26) remained significantly below $23.5 billion ( ₹2 lakh crore) in the comparable period of the previous year. This was on account of a record high monthly outflow of $13.6 billion in October 2024 and their favourable stance in the first quarter of FY26 when they invested $3.5 billion compared with an outflow of a similar magnitude in the first quarter of FY25.127874019While the secondary market selling by FPIs has slowed in FY26 so far, their buying in the primary market too has decelerated. This may raise concerns as it implie
The US decision to sharply reduce tariffs on Indian goods should strengthen the rupee and boost Indian stocks, strategists and fund managers said.US President Donald Trump announced that he would lower his 25% tariff on Indian goods to 18% after Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed during a phone call to stop buying Russian oil. Trump is also removing the extra 25% duty on Indian goods he applied in response to India’s purchases of crude from Russia, according to officials familiar with the matter.The rupee had been hitting record lows in recent days as persistent outflows from local stocks and lack of a trade deal with the US weighed on sentiment. Global funds continued to pull out money from Indian stocks in 2026 after two prior years of outflows.The trade developments are “immensely
New Delhi: Chinese smartphone brands in India are planning two more rounds of price increases till the festive season, encouraged by favourable consumer acceptance of the first price hike of 2026 in early January, said industry executives. Rising cost of components, specially memory and storage, is forcing brands to raise prices to protect margins, and also grow revenues, they said.Companies have trimmed their sales targets for the year given the potential impact of the higher prices on demand. Quarterly sales targets have been cut by 15-20%, while brands are maintaining lean inventory as a defensive measure. "The price hike is not a one-time event," said an industry executive from a leading smartphone brand. "Level 1 occurred in Q1. Level 2 is expected in Q2, and the peak Level 3 will hit
Mumbai : Several series of sovereign gold bonds (SGBs) fell between 8% and 10% Monday with very few buyers in the market.Investors stayed away from the secondary market after the government withdrew tax benefits. In Sunday’s budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that exemption from capital gains tax at maturity would be removed for SGBs purchased in the secondary market.SGBs fell due to the combined effect of a drop in gold prices and removal of the tax advantage, said Nirav Karkera, head of research at wealthtech platform Fisdom. He expects this to be a knee-jerk reaction and bond prices to settle in a few days as gold stabilises and investors rework taxation.127873802Sovereign gold bonds, issued by the Reserve Bank of India from 2015, have a tenure of eight years. The l
Indian equities are primed to narrow their rare underperformance versus Asian peers after New Delhi and Washington clinched a long-awaited trade agreement, removing a key overhang that had weighed on the nation’s financial assets and triggered record foreign outflows.The accord, announced late Monday night India time, saw President Donald Trump cut the reciprocal tariff on Indian goods to 18% from 25% and eliminate an additional 25% duty linked to India’s purchases of Russian crude oil. The move is widely seen by fund managers as a catalyst for global investors to return to Indian equities, which logged their worst January since 2016, while also offering support to a rupee that has slid to a series of record lows.“This is a good reset to India-US trade that may shift foreign investor
