Rise With Profit: Trump's Tariff Plans, FPIs Break 38-Day Selling Streak, Zomato's QIP | Podcast

This is the daily morning update from NDTV Profit and I’m Alex Mathew. Over the next few minutes, we’ll bring you up to speed with everything you need to know, so you can start your day on the right foot.

You can listen to this as a podcast here.

To global news first—there are signs that there may soon be a breakthrough in talks to bring about a ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah. That’s based on a source-based report by Reuters. US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron are expected to announce the ceasefire.

In Washington, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said that while a deal was close, nothing would be done till everything is done. The report also quoted the French presidency as saying that discussions on a ceasefire had made significant progress. In Jerusalem, a senior Israeli official said Israel's cabinet would meet on Tuesday to approve a truce deal with Hezbollah.

All of that has contributed to bringing crude prices lower. As of this morning, Brent crude was trading at just over $72 to the barrel, down from close to $75 only a few sessions back.

In other international news, the expectation that a Trump presidency in the US will lead to uncertainty in global trade is proving to be accurate. Already, even before he takes charge in January, President-elect Donald Trump has said he plans to raise tariffs by an additional 10% on all or most Chinese goods coming into the country. He said this in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. The higher tariffs, he said, were because China had not done enough to stop the massive amounts of drugs, in particular Fentanyl, from being sent into the US.

He also said that he would impose a 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada as one of his first Executive Orders.

The announcement is likely having a negative bearing on Asian markets, which were all in the red, last I checked.

Trump’s choice for Treasury secretary is also having a bearing on markets there. The dollar fell the most in two weeks and the yield on the 10-year treasury fell 13 basis points to 4.27%, because Scott Bessent, a hedge fund manager, is known to be a fiscal hawk. In other words, he would not be supportive of profligate spending by the government.

In news back home, there’s plenty in the way of stock-specific information that could have a bearing on trade on Tuesday. But first, let me tell you about the fund flows in yesterday’s session. There was considerable buying by foreign institutional investors, largely on account of a rebalancing of the MSCI indices and a rise in the weightage of HDFC Bank.

The buying has stopped a 38-day run of net selling by foreign institutions, with them buying equity worth just under Rs 10,000 crore on a net basis. HDFC Bank itself saw delivery-based buying of over Rs 31,000 crore.

In other news, GQG Partners, a large global investment fund, has made a strong statement supporting its investments in a number of Adani Group companies. They said this in a memo to investors, explaining why they are not changing their strategy to invest in the group after the recent indictment of individuals from the group by the US Justice Department. In fact, that’s the distinction they made, saying the indictment did not relate to any company, but individuals. And this had to do with Adani Green and not any other entities of the group. They also said that they find the fundamentals of the group remain strong. Most of them don’t have funding requirements, and even if they do, Indian banks are not showing any signs that they will shut off funding. As of Nov. 21, the investment fund had an exposure of $8.1 billion to the Adani Group.

A few more stocks you should pay attention to—Zomato Ltd. has announced the opening of its qualified institutional placement issue, which is aimed at raising a total sum of Rs 8,500 crore. The company has fixed the floor price for the QIP at Rs 265.91 per share, according to a regulatory filing. The floor price is 2.8% lower as compared to the stock's current market price.

You should watch for GE Vernova T&D—Grid Equipments Pvt., a promoter of the company, is likely to divest around 8.38% stake via an offer for sale over two trading days starting today. The floor price for the offer has been set at Rs 1,550 per share, which is a significant discount to the close on Monday. The base offer size is 5.47% and will be offered to non-retail investors on Tuesday. The offer will also be open on Wednesday for retail and non-retail investors who choose to carry forward their unallotted bids.

In other news, India's domestic air passenger traffic rose to 1.36 crore in October, a growth of 8.08%. Sequentially, the domestic air passenger traffic has increased by 4.6%. The dominance of IndiGo remained intact. Its market share increased to 63.3% in October from 63% in September. However, the airline's passenger load factor, or the occupancy rate, slipped marginally to 82.3% from 82.6%.

Disclaimer: NDTV Profit is a subsidiary of AMG Media Networks Limited, an Adani Group Company.