Trade Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The hedge-fund herd was early to see opportunity in the stocks of chip makers and other artificial-intelligence hardware companies. Those bets just delivered stock-picking funds their best month in over two decades.Steve Cohen’s Point72, Whale Rock Capital Management and Seligman Investments are among the hedge-fund firms that posted strong returns in April thanks in part to rallies in semiconductor stocks and those of related equipment makers.That helped make April the best month for stock-picking funds since December 1999, according to an industry index compiled by research firm PivotalPath, with a gain of 6.5%.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.BEIJING—President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping reunited on Thursday morning in Beijing, kicking off a summit centered on improving their economic relationship, as the war in Iran and U.S. commitment to Taiwan loom.Speaking inside the Great Hall of the People, both leaders projected optimism for two days of talks.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Stock market recap: The Indian equity benchmarks snapped their four-day losing streak on Wednesday, closing marginally higher after a volatile session. The market saw strong buying interest in metals, oil-linked counters, and select heavyweight stocks, which helped offset persistent weakness in IT and auto shares.The Sensex edged up 49.74 points, or 0.07%, to finish at 74,608.98, while the Nifty advanced 33.05 points, or 0.14 percent, to settle at 23,412.60.NLCINDIA (Cmp ₹325.70)NLCINDIA: Buy above ₹328, stop ₹313 target ₹358 (Multiday)ROSSARI: Buy above ₹534, stop ₹503 target ₹589 (Multiday) GNFC (Cmp ₹489.95)GNFC: Buy above ₹492, stop ₹467 target ₹550 (Multiday)On May 13, Indian equity benchmarks halted their four-day losing streak, closing marginally higher after a volatile session.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Stock market recap: Indian equity markets ended Wednesday’s session on a resilient note, with late buying helping benchmarks overcome early volatility. The Nifty 50 closed at 23,412.60, up 33.05 points, or 0.14%.Still, broader sentiment remained cautious after the Indian rupee slid to a fresh record low of 95.80 against the US dollar, weighed down by elevated crude oil prices and continued foreign institutional investor (FII) outflows.Market breadth remained firmly positive, with 1,962 stocks advancing against 1,303 declines, signalling broad-based buying interest beyond index heavyweights.Among sectors, Nifty Metal outperformed with a sharp 3.18% gain, followed by Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas, which rose 1.67% and 1.28%, respectively.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a clarion call for austerity, the Centre sharply raised import duty on precious metals to save dollars, at a time when the Gulf crisis boosts energy prices, weakens the rupee, and eats into the nation's current account. While economists said the decision could dampen demand and arrest the rupee's fall, others said it may fuel smuggling and impact jobs in the jewellery sector.The finance ministry increased the total import duty on gold, silver and platinum from 9.18% to 18.45%.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: The Centre is considering a nationwide ban on crop-protection chemicals paraquat and carbosulfan after Telangana and Odisha imposed restrictions on their use, two people familiar with the matter told Mint.Paraquat is extensively used for weed control and conservation tillage, while carbosulfan is considered one of the few effective options against gall midge attacks in paddy-growing regions.However, as the kharif sowing season advances, the agrochemical industry has approached the Centre, contending that restricting the two widely used chemicals at the start of the cultivation season could disrupt weed and pest management practices and pose risks to the production of key cereal crops, particularly rice.It is lobbying for a scientific reassessment rather than an outright ban, warning that removing the two molecules could reduce farmers’ choices, increase cultivation costs, and aggravate pesticide resistance.The two chemicals have a market size of around ₹2,100 crore and are widely used in crops such as rice, cotton, fruits, and vegetables.“A meeting was recently held in the agriculture ministry, where the industry has urged the government not to rely on the decisions taken by the two states before arriving at any final decision,” said the first of the two people cited above.The ministry has taken a tough stand and sought additional details backed by scientific evidence. “Once the submissions are received, they will be reviewed and reassessed by the concerned government body before any final decision is taken,” this person added.“The ministry is also taking inputs from its scientists and collecting data related to the chemicals' health impact.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI/BENGALURU: Indian jewellery retailers and industry bodies are recalibrating their strategies as gold becomes more expensive following the government’s latest import duty hike. Companies are focusing on gold exchange schemes and lower-karat products to prevent a drop in sales volume.On Tuesday, India raised the effective import tax on gold and silver to 15%, reversing the duty cuts announced two years ago.The move comes as the government attempts to rein in surging precious metal imports and protect India’s foreign exchange reserves amid elevated crude oil prices and geopolitical tensions in West Asia.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India has launched the ₹12,980-crore sovereign-backed Bharat Maritime Insurance Pool (BMIP) at a time when tensions in West Asia and sanctions-related disruptions are increasing risks to global shipping and energy trade.The domestic insurance pool, with a total underwriting capacity of $1.5 billion and a sovereign guarantee of $1.4 billion, aims to ensure uninterrupted maritime insurance cover for Indian-linked vessels and cargo.Mint explains:India launched the BMIP to reduce heavy dependence on foreign insurers and reinsurers amid rising geopolitical tensions, sanctions, and war-related disruptions affecting global shipping. The immediate trigger is instability in West Asia, a region vital for India’s crude oil and energy imports.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The markets regulator has proposed easing physical settlement rules for select agricultural commodity derivatives to boost liquidity and participation in a market that has struggled with weak volumes and operational hurdles.In a Tuesday consultation paper, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) proposed a phased framework under which some agri commodity contracts can initially trade as cash-settled contracts before transitioning to mandatory physical delivery.Mint explains:Sebi has recommended allowing exchanges to launch or revive select agricultural commodity derivatives contracts as financially settled products in the initial phase, before mandatorily shifting them to physical settlement once they meet predefined thresholds. These thresholds could include average daily traded volume, open interest levels or a maximum period of two years, whichever is earlier.The proposal marks a shift from the regulator's current framework, under which physical delivery is the preferred mode of settlement for commodity derivatives contracts.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: The ministry of railways is planning to dilute 5-10% stakes in six listed railway public sector undertakings and another 2-3% in another listed company through offer-for-sale transactions inFY27, as part of a broader push to meet a ₹2.62 trillion monetization target under the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP 2.0), two people aware of the matter said.The seven listed railway PSUs are Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp. (IRCTC), Indian Railway Finance Corp.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Senate Banking Committee on Thursday is almost sure to advance a crypto regulation bill that industry heavyweights like Coinbase Global have championed for years. Crypto investors can’t pop the champagne just yet.Republican senators early Tuesday morning released the final text of a bill that would regulate crypto trading.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.What do the Indonesian stockmarket, South Korean government bonds and Robinhood, an online broker, have in common? Not much, you might think. But over the past year investors in all three have quivered before the same phenomenon: the awesome power of financial indices.The largest of these now exert a tidal pull on markets. As of 2025, around $36trn-worth of capital was in passive investment funds.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Indian equities have spent the past year lurching from one shock to another. Just as investors adjust to one trigger, another upends sentiment—from tariff threats and geopolitical flare-ups to relentless foreign investor selling and slowing earnings growth.The latest blow has come from the war in West Asia, which has once again rattled markets already struggling to sustain momentum.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for Indians to help conserve foreign exchange in various ways, such as by holding off on foreign travel and using less fuel, made waves as news partly because it has been more than a decade since India’s external sector was last under pressure. With crude trading above $100 per barrel globally, our oil imports are soaking up dollars even as exports face protectionist headwinds. Ever since war erupted in West Asia, it has been clear that its adverse effect on our balance of payments (BoP) would need to be kept under watch.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The British pound, stocks and markets are in turmoil. U.K.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Stock market recap: The Indian equity markets faced a significant "Tuesday Tsunami," with Nifty 50 plunging 1.83% to settle at 23,379.55, while BSE Sensex crashed more than 1,450 points.This sharp correction was primarily fueled by escalating geopolitical tensions in West Asia, with President Trump’s remarks placing the U.S.-Iran ceasefire on “life support,” subsequently driving Brent crude prices toward $106 per barrel. Locally, the Indian Rupee hit a fresh lifetime low of 95.51 against the dollar, further dampening investor sentiment.The sell-off was broad-based, as reflected in a severely skewed advance-decline ratio, with 590 stocks advancing and 2,726 stocks declining.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.BEIJING—When President Trump returns to China nearly a decade after his last visit, he will find a country that is more self-sufficient, militarily assertive and economically insulated from the tools the president has used to stymie it and its ambitions.China has caught up to or surpassed the U.S. in technologies such as batteries, robotics and advanced manufacturing.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: In a bid to tame recurring onion price shocks and improve farmer incomes, the Centre is working on a plan to help states locally procure and scientifically store the politically-sensitive crop in the producing regions, two people aware of the matter said. The strategy aims to cut wastage, reduce transport dependence on key producing states such as Maharashtra and create buffer stocks closer to demand centres to avert price spikes that stoke food inflation.Under the proposed framework for the world's second-largest onion producer, states would be encouraged to procure onions directly from local farmers and maintain buffer stocks through state warehousing corporations and other storage agencies, the people said.According to them, the government believes that improving storage infrastructure closer to cultivation clusters could help reduce wastage and stabilize supplies during tight availability periods.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.At the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai last year, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced the launch of a “next-generation financial market infrastructure,” designed to “tokenize financial assets and settlements.” While it received no more than a passing mention in his speech, the Unified Markets Interface he mentioned appears to be an early signpost of the direction in which the digitization of India’s financial sector is likely to progress. To understand the significance of this announcement, it is important to be clear about what a tokenized asset is and how it works.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Several government committees, apart from the Niti Aayog, have asked for regulatory impact assessments (RIAs) to be institutionalized in India. The statutory backing of a legislative framework can ensure its meaningful use as a tool for assessing the costs and benefits of current and prospective regulatory measures. The inclusion of provisions related to RIAs in India’s recently concluded free trade agreements (FTAs) highlights the urgency to enact a central law on such study-based reports.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.How long can mutual funds (MFs) hold up stock indices in India? Inflows into equity MFs in April fell 5% from March to ₹38,440.2 crore, according to data issued on Monday by the Association of Mutual Funds in India. This despite the 6.5%-odd rise in the BSE Sensex last month.