

India-US trade deal boosts prospects of Indian cable & internet gear makers
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The India-US trade deal announcement has lifted investor sentiment around Indian cable and internet gear makers such as Sterlite Technologies Ltd (STL), HFCL Ltd, RR Kabel Ltd, Polycab India Ltd and Havells India Ltd, amid expectations of improved US export prospects and margin recovery after earlier tariff-related pressures, analysts said.
Shares of these companies were up 3–3.3% intraday on Tuesday as investors priced in potential gains from lower tariff barriers and stronger demand from US data centre and telecom infrastructure projects. US President Donald Trump said late night on Monday that the two countries had agreed on a trade deal under which the US would lower its reciprocal tariff on Indian goods from 25% to 18%, while India would reduce its tariffs and non-tariff barriers against the US to zero.
The US is also removing the extra 25% duty on Indian goods that was applied in response to India’s purchases of crude oil from Russia, according to Bloomberg. Finer details of the deal are still awaited.
“There will be a rate advantage now with 18% tariffs now from the earlier 50%. The cables industry, especially companies that supply optical fiber cables, will benefit from the data centre and fiberization drive in the US," said Faisal Kawoosa, chief analyst at Techarc, a technology market research company.
According to Kawoosa, a bilateral trade deal between the two countries will remove trade and tariff uncertainties, and vendors such as STL that already have a presence in the US will benefit from the reduced tariffs. To be sure, ever since Trump imposed stiff tariffs on India, operating margins narrowed for STL, while exports contracted for HFCL, Polycab , Havells India and RR
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