Mum BEST bus moves ahead without driver, 1 hurt

The Indian economy is expected to be 'a little weaker' in 2025 despite steady global growth, International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva has said.

Georgieva also said she expects quite a lot of uncertainty in the world this year mainly around the trade policy of the United States.

In her annual media roundtable with a group of reporters on Friday, she said global growth is expected to be steady in 2025, but with regional divergence.

Georgieva said she expects the Indian economy to be a little weaker in 2025. However, she did not explain it any further.

The World Economy Outlook update week will have more details about it. 

"The US is doing quite a bit better than we expected before, the EU is somewhat stalling, (and) India a little weaker," she said.

Brazil was facing somewhat higher inflation, she said.

In China, the world's second-largest economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was seeing deflationary pressure and ongoing challenges with domestic demand, she said.

"Low-income countries, despite all the efforts they are making, are in a position when any new shock can affect them quite negatively," Georgieva said.

"What we expect in 2025 is to have quite a lot of uncertainty, especially in terms of economic policies. Not surprisingly, given the size and role of the US economy, there is keen interest globally in the policy directions of the incoming administration, in particular on tariffs, taxes, deregulation and government efficiency," Georgieva said.

"This uncertainty is particularly high around the path for trade policy going forward, adding to the headwinds facing the global economy, especially for countries and regions that are more integrated in global supply chains, medium-sized economies, (and) Asia as a region," she said.

That uncertainty is actually expressed globally through higher long-term interest rates, even though short-term interest rates have gone down, the IMF Managing Director said.

Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, replacing Joe Biden at the White House. 

Trump, 78, has announced plans to impose additional tariffs on countries like China, Canada and Mexico. He has publicly announced the use of tariffs as a key policy tool.

On inflation, the IMF expects global disinflation to continue, Georgieva said.

"As we all recognise, the higher interest rates that were necessary to fight inflation did not push the world economy into recession. They have delivered the desired results. Headline inflation is converging back to target sooner in advanced economies than in emerging markets," she said.   -- PTI

Abhishek Kumar/Business Standard

Investors are shutting down mutual fund (MF) SIP accounts at a record pace amid mounting equity market volatility.

In December, 4.5 million SIP accounts were discontinued the highest number ever recorded.

The previous record of 4.4 million closures was set in May 2024.

Despite the closures and market correction, SIP inflows remain unaffected. 

In December, investors poured in a record Rs 26,459 crore (Rs 264.59 billion) into MF schemes via SIPs.

The surge in account closures has weighed heavily on the net addition of active SIP accounts, with the industry adding only 0.9 million accounts in December, the lowest in seven months.

"With the market turning volatile, investors who are new to equity investing could have felt a bit jittery. As a result, the closures may have gone up," said Anand Varadarajan, chief business officer at Tata Asset Management.

The benchmark Nifty 50 index ended December in the red, marking its third consecutive monthly decline.

The index dropped 2 per cent last month and has fallen over 10 per cent from its all-time high in September.

The rising base of SIP accounts, according to experts, is another factor contributing to the growing number of closures.

SIP data is often regarded as a key indicator of retail investor behaviour, given that systematic investment plans are predominantly used by individual investors.

While closures have surged, the opening of new SIP accounts has slowed after peaking at 7.3 million in July 2024. In December, 5.4 million new SIPs were registered.

For the whole of 2024, active SIP accounts rose by 26.8 million to 103 million, compared to an addition of 15.1 million accounts in 2023.

The growth in openings was driven by increased new investor participation, strong performances across asset classes, and record-breaking new fund offerings.

Bangladeshi officials will not attend the 150th-anniversary celebrations of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), authorities said on Friday, citing restrictions on non-essential foreign travel at government expense.

Mominul Islam, the acting director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), confirmed receiving the invitation from the IMD a month ago, saying: "The India Meteorological Department invited us to their 150th anniversary celebrations. We maintain good relations and continue to collaborate with them."

"However, we are not going to the event as there is an obligation to limit non-essential foreign trips funded by the government," Islam told bdnews 24.

He emphasised the regular contact between the two agencies, noting his recent visit to India on December 20, 2024, for a separate meeting with Indian meteorologists.

The IMD invited several neighbouring nations -- including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives -- and countries from the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

A top IMD official told PTI: "We have asked all the countries that were part of India when IMD was launched (150 years ago) to join this festival."

"Pakistan has already agreed to join the event, but Bangladesh has not responded."

Founded in 1875 during British colonial rule, the IMD was established in response to devastating weather events, including the cyclone that ravaged Kolkata in 1864 and subsequent monsoon-related disasters in 1866 and 1871.

Initially headquartered in Kolkata, the IMD relocated several times, moving to Shimla in 1905, Pune in 1928, and eventually Delhi in 1944. The department will officially mark its sesquicentennial on January 15, 2025. -- PTI

The momentum in the equity market is likely to continue with initial public offerings (IPOs) worth $35 billion in the next 12 months, Kotak Investment Banking said on Friday.

India is the second-largest market in the world when it comes to equity fundraising and it saw the highest-ever fundraising ($74 billion) in 2024.

"India was probably 14% of the global equity capital markets. So, that really was a pleasant surprise," said V Jayasankar, MD, Kotak Investment Banking.

According to the investment bank, fundraising activity in India has been notably broad-based, spanning all sectors, unlike global capital markets such as the US, which are often dominated by a few key industries like technology, healthcare, or financial services.

In contrast, India's equity capital market saw robust performance across all major sectors. Domestic investments provided resilience amid geopolitical risks and market volatility.

Despite the muted foreign portfolio investor inflows, robust inflows of $62 billion from domestic institutional investors, backed by increasing SIP flows, provided stability and smoother execution of equity capital market transactions compared to other global markets.

Kotak Investment Banking said deal sizes are consistently increasing across products, highlighting the depth of Indian markets, with more than 30 $500 million deals last year.

Further, MNCs prefer India as a listing destination by making their subsidiaries debut on Indian bourses. MNCs are also increasingly monetising their holdings, contributing almost one-third of sell-downs in 2024.  -- Business Standard

Rex Cano/Business Standard

Prolonged weakness in the benchmark indices seems to have taken a toll on the overall market breadth, with a vast majority of the stocks now trading below the long-term moving average.

The 200-Day Moving Average (DMA) is said to be the long-term moving average, and stocks trading above the same are said to be holding a positive (bullish) bias and vice versa.

As of Friday, a vast majority  -- 316 stocks or 63 per cent of the Nifty 500 stocks had dropped below this key moving average.

Similar is the case with index frontliners 31 out of the Nifty 50 stocks were seen trading below the 200-DMA.

In the case of the Nifty MidCap 150 and SmallCap 250 indices -- 95 out of the 150 midcaps and 144 out of the 250 smallcaps had slipped below the long-term threshold.

The NSE Nifty 50 index had dipped to a low of 23,344, and was down 0.8 per cent at the lowest point of the day.

When compared with its long-term moving average, the index has been quoting below the same for the last five trading sessions. The Nifty 200-DMA now stands at 23,907.

According to Sameet Chavan, Head Research, Technical and Derivative -- Angel One, the Nifty is seen testing crucial support around 23,500- 23,450 levels, which has served as a solid base since December and aligns with the lower boundary of a 'Falling Channel' pattern on the hourly chart.

Anjali Kumari/Business Standard

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), which returned to the domestic debt market in December after two consecutive months of net selling, started withdrawing again in January.

This came as the yield spread between US Treasury yields and domestic government bond yields narrowed, according to market participants.

They said that the first quarter of the year poses significant challenges for both the Indian bond and equity markets.

This is because the yield spread between the 10-year US bond yield and domestic benchmark 10-year government bond yield has narrowed by 13 basis points (bps) so far in January.

The next 2-3 months will be particularly difficult to attract capital, apart from any inflows tied to index-related adjustments, they said.

Foreign investors bought a net Rs 7,080 crore (Rs 70.80 billion) worth of government securities designated under the fully accessible route (FAR) in December.

Meanwhile, they have sold a net Rs 3,409 crore (Rs 34.09 billion) worth of FAR securities in January so far, according to data by the Clearing Corporation of India.

The first quarter of the year is going to be very tricky for the Indian bond and equity markets. Flows will be tricky because the spread has shrunk, said Anshul Chandak, head of treasury at RBL Bank.

Foreign investors were net sellers of FAR securities during October-November, driven by lower-than-expected growth in the second quarter of the current financial year. They sold a net Rs 5,187 crore (Rs 51.87 billion) worth of FAR securities in November.

India will join the Bloomberg Index services  Emerging Market Local Currency Government Index starting January 31, 2025.

Deepak Patel/Business Standard

Delhi airport's Terminal 2 (T2) will be shut from April onwards for about four to six months as its operator, Delhi International Airport Limited, refurbishes it.

'The temporary closure of Terminal 2 is expected to cause minimal disruption to operations, as the newly developed Terminal 1 will absorb the additional load, ensuring continued service to passengers,' the GMR Group-led DIAL stated.

A certain part of T1 was reopened in August last year, about two months after it was closed because a section of its roof had collapsed amid heavy rains, killing one person and injuring several others.

The refurbishment work at T2 is set to commence in the new financial year (2025-26) and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of the financial year.

'T2 will undergo a temporary shutdown for approximately four to six months to complete these improvements,' it mentioned.

Under the refurbishment plan, DIAL will procure six passenger boarding bridges for the terminal.

There will be multiple mechanical and electrical improvements, and a new high-resolution flight information display system will be deployed.

DIAL will also refurbish the airside and apron area of the terminal.

The Bombay high court on Friday granted bail to Jaydeep Apte, the sculptor who made the 28-feet statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in Malvan that collapsed in August last year.

A single bench of Justice N R Borkar granted Apte bail on a personal bond of Rs 25,000.

Apte, in his plea filed through advocate Ganesh Sovani, had sought bail claiming that the statue fell because of gusty winds.

The statue, which was inaugurated on December 4, 2023 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Rajkot Fort in Malvan, collapsed on August 26 last year. It was erected on a 12-feet pedestal at a cost of Rs2.44 crore.

Advocate Sovani submitted that no one was injured in the incident and that further custody of Apte was not warranted.

An FIR was lodged on the complaint of state Public Works Department (PWD) personnel under various sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.

Apte, proprietor of M/s Artistry, said he made the bronze statue on the basis of the work order issued on September 8, 2023 by the Naval Dockyard.

His plea contended that the Naval Dockyard authority never complained of any artistic deficiency or shortcomings.

His plea pointed out that the FIR was registered within nine hours of the incident on the complaint of PWD personnel who have no technical expertise in metallurgy.

Sovani also told court co-accused Chetan Patil was granted bail in November last year.  -- PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a state visit to France and then participate in the AI Summit to be held in Paris in February, President Emmanuel Macron has said.

"France will be hosting on February 11 and 12 the AI Summit, a summit for action, which will enable us to have a discussion on artificial intelligence," Macron said.

"Prime Minister Modi will be there immediately after the state visit to our country. This (the AI Summit) will enable us to have a dialogue with all the powers, IEA, US, China and major nations such as .... India which has a role to play as well as the Gulf States," he said.

Even though Macron said February 11 and 12, the 'AI Action Summit' is to be held on February 10 and 11.

French was addressing a gathering of French Ambassadors earlier this week. He presented his foreign policy for 2025 and spoke on a number of topics, including its equation with the US post-Trump win, according to his speech livestreamed on France24.

Modi's last meeting with Macron was on November 18 on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was the third meeting between the two leaders in 2024, after President Macron's visit to India as the Chief Guest for the Republic Day celebrations in January and their meeting on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Italy in June, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said then.

During the November 2024 meeting, the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to advance the India-France Strategic Partnership as well as their shared vision for bilateral cooperation and international partnership, outlined in the Horizon 2047 roadmap and other bilateral declarations.

They commended the progress achieved in bilateral cooperation, including in strategic areas such as defense, space and civil nuclear energy, and committed to accelerating it further with a view to reinforcing their shared commitment to strategic autonomy, the MEA said.

"The two leaders commended the strengthening of trade, investment, and technology ties, including in the areas of digital technology and Artificial Intelligence, as well as India France partnership on Digital Public Infrastructure," the MEA said, adding, "In this context, Prime Minister welcomed the initiative of President Macron to organise the forthcoming AI Action Summit in France."

EuroNews.com said last week that the AI Action Summit in France comes after the United Kingdom and South Korea hosted the first events on AI, gathering heads of state, international organisations as well as businesses.

"France's AI Action Summit, to be held on 10 and 11 February, aims to present Europe as the 'leading AI continent'," Euronews said, quoting the minutes of the bloc's telecom attaches seen by it.  -- PTI