Trade Financial News

Indian workers to duty-free access on goods with India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal in New Delhi. While the import management system has minimized the impact on businesses, she “urged India to ensure that the end-to-end online system currently in operation and related policies do not restrict trade going forward," according to a joint statement. In October last year, India said it will allow imports of tech hardware without a mandatory license, softening curbs it had previously planned to impose.

China has reported that its exports grew slightly for a second consecutive month in December even as deflationary pressures continued

Robots of all kinds caused a stir on the show floor this week at the annual CES technology trade show in Las Vegas

Medi Assist Healthcare IPO: The initial public offering (IPO) of Medi Assist Healthcare Limited is going to hit the Indian primary market on 15th January 2024 i.e. on Monday next week. The public issue will remain open for bidders till 17th January 2024.

BSE) are going to conduct the special live trading session in the equity F&O segment on 20th January 2024 i.e. on Saturday next week. The BSE and NSE aim to switch to the DR site through this special live session.

Demat accounts, ATMs, and Credit Cards. In a circular on Friday, the stock market regulator said, “It has been observed that at times, suspicious activities are noticed by the investors but the facility of freezing/blocking of accounts is not available with the majority of trading members." Sebi said that there is an urgent need to implement a facility for blocking/freezing trading accounts.

Buy or sell stocks: Despite weak sentiments at the Asian bourses, the Indian stock market extended its winning streak for the fourth straight session on Friday. Nifty 50 index finished at the 21,894 level after climbing to a new peak of 21,928. BSE Sensex ended at 72,568 mark after hitting a new peak of 72,568.

The commerce ministry said that the two ministers noted that the movement of professional and skilled workers, students, investors and business visitors between the countries contributes immensely to enhancing bilateral economic and technological partnership. «Minister Goyal highlighted challenges being faced by business visitors from India due to visa processing time periods and requested the US to augment processing,» the statement said.

Binance Holdings Ltd. acrimoniously split with its Indian affiliate WazirX in 2022, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange looked near-invincible in the local market while WazirX was flailing. A government crackdown on offshore platforms has abruptly reversed the competitive dynamics. Since Indian authorities in late December began restricting access to Binance and other foreign crypto exchanges operating there without local registrations, traders have flocked to domestic rivals like WazirX. Many of them are moving deposits across from Binance, according to the local venues. It’s a welcome reprieve for WazirX and competitors like CoinDCX and CoinSwitch Kuber, which were pummeled by a 2022 taxation regime that drove traders to offshore exchanges. They appear poised for further gains after Apple Inc.’s App Store this week took down the apps of Binance and seven other foreign exchanges after a request from India’s government. Deposit inflows at WazirX jumped about 250% in the four days following India’s Dec. 28 compliance show-cause notice to nine offshore platforms, compared with the four days leading up to it, according to the company. CoinDCX reopened for deposits right after the event and they immediately began pouring in, CEO Sumit Gupta said.

Gold rate today: Despite swift recovery from the one-month low, gold price ended 0.30 per cent lower in the week gone by. The gold futures contract for February 2024 expiry on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) finished at ₹62,390 per 10 gm level on Friday, logging a marginal intraday gain of ₹28 per 10 gm. In the international market, spot gold price closed at $2,048 per ounce level.

Mint takes a closer look at the situation. For close to two months, attacks on ships on the vital Red Sea routes have troubled the international community. The Houthis, a rebel group in northern Yemen, have launched these attacks in an effort to punish Israel, a key link along the trade route, for its military offensive in Gaza.

U.S. Navy on Friday warned American-flagged vessels to steer clear of areas around Yemen in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden for the next 72 hours after the U.S. and Britain launched multiple airstrikes targeting Houthi rebels. The warning in a notice to shippers came as Yemen's Houthis vowed fierce retaliation for the U.S.-led strikes, further raising the prospect of a wider conflict in a region already beset by Israel's war in Gaza. U.S.

HanuMan Box Office Collection Day 1: Prashanth Varma's mythological superhero film ‘HanuMan’ performed well on its first day at the box office and better than Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi starrer Merry Christmas. According to film industry tracker Sacnilk, the film minted ₹11.91 crore net in India on its release day.

festival is also known by other names in different states. Uttarayana Punyakala, Makara Sankranti Festival, Maghe Sankranti, Pongal, and Magh Bihu are all celebrated on the same date – January 15.

By Noel Randewich

Tesla shares dropped in trade after the carmaker said its lone European factory will be disrupted by attacks in the Red Sea. It also cut car prices in China. The company reduced starting prices of the Model 3 sedan by 5.9% to 245,900 yuan ($34,300) and marked down the Model Y sport utility vehicle by 2.8% to 258,900 yuan, according to its website. Hours earlier, Tesla told Reuters it will suspend most production at its Model Y plant near Berlin from Jan.

Investors started trading in Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) in the US on Friday after the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) allowed 11 asset managers, including BlackRock, Fidelity, Invesco, and ARK Investments to launch the product. This is considered a watershed moment for the crypto industry, which includes all kinds of digital currencies, including bitcoin, as investors now have a chance to buy these digital currencies in a regulated environment. What's a bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF)? Bitcoin ETFs are instruments which are traded publicly on a stock exchange that enable investors to gain exposure to bitcoin without actually owning the cryptocurrency. An ETF is an investment fund that tracks the performance of an underlying asset. The underlying asset could be a portfolio of stocks, or fixed income securities, or a precious metal like gold or silver or bitcoin. ETFs trade real time on traditional stock exchanges, and the price moves up or down in line with that of the underlying asset. How do bitcoins in the ETF format help investors? When you invest in a bitcoin ETF, you're not directly purchasing it but instead buying units in a mutual fund that holds bitcoin. Since ETFs are regulated, it is easier for investors to gain exposure to bitcoin's price movements without having to worry about buying and storing the digital currency and the associated risks of an unregulated product. Also, now investors can bet on crypto without opening an account with a crypto exchange or setting up a digital wallet for the storage, which is considered a complicated process.

companies soared on Friday, emerging as some of the biggest gainers in the day's trading, as investors were relieved that December quarter earnings of the sector giants-TCS and Infosys-and their management commentaries were not as gloomy as they were expecting. Infosys shares surged 8.08% to close at Rs 1,615 on Friday and TCS shares gained 3.92% to close at Rs 3,881.90. Wipro advanced almost 4%, while Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech and LTI Mindtree gained between 4.5% and 5% each. «Both TCS and Infosys have reported marginally better earnings compared to the muted investor expectations which has led to the rally,» said Sumit Pokharna, VP and IT analyst, Kotak Securities.

Wells Fargo Advisors, with close to 12,000 financial advisors across various business channels, said Friday that it was selling new spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds, but only when a customer asked for the security in a non-solicited trade or without any prompting from a salesperson.

Citi commodity strategists project that, absent significant supply disruptions, OPEC+ is likely to maintain its 1Q’24 production cuts throughout 2024, initiating a tapering process only in 2H’25 due to diminishing effectiveness.

By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed