Canadian PM Resigns, India GDP Numbers Today, New PLI For Steel Sector | Rise With Profit

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 at the start of your day.

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A source-based newspaper story set the markets abuzz overnight. The Washington Post, citing three sources familiar with the matter, reported that US President-elect Donald Trump’s aides were considering a narrower approach to tariffs, focused on certain critical sectors. The report said that the aides were exploring tariff plans that would be applied to every country, but only cover some sectors deemed to be critical to national or economic security.

The reaction was sharp—equity markets rallied and the dollar declined sharply. Trump responded on his Truth Social platform denying the report. But equity markets remained higher despite the denial. The dollar index, which measures the dollar’s strength against several currencies, later recovered some losses and ended at $108.35.

On Wall Street, the Dow ended largely unchanged, while the S&P 500 closed higher by 0.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.2%, despite yields on the 10-year Treasury hitting the highest since May. In the Asia Pacific region this morning, equity markets are strongly positive—at least the three early risers. The Nikkei 225 was higher by 2%, rebounding from its rough start to 2025 and the Kospi in South Korea was higher by over a percent.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has resigned on Monday. Trudeau, in a media conference in Ottawa, said that he will remain prime minister until his party selects a new leader. The Canadian Parliament will remain suspended until March 24.

Trudeau has served as prime minister since 2015. His resignation follows months of internal pressure within the Liberal Party, which intensified after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland stepped down on Dec. 16, citing policy disagreements with the prime minister.

Back home, you’ll know of course that the equity markets had a rough start to the trading week. Worries about the new HMPV virus that emerged from China pushed the benchmark Nifty 50 lower by 1.6%.

Action in the primary market continues—there’s a listing today that you should watch for. Indo Farm Equipment will list at an issue of Rs 215 per share. It was a Rs 260-crore IPO, which was subscribed nearly 230 times, led by demand from non-institutional investors.

Watch out for GDP numbers for the Indian economy today. Ahead of the union budget, the ministry of statistics and program implementation will release its first advance estimates. A Bloomberg poll of economists estimates the country's GDP will rise 6.4% in fiscal 2025. GDP growth for the fiscal is projected at 6.6% by the Reserve Bank of India.

The slowdown in growth was visible in the second quarter, when the GDP grew at 5.4% in the slowest pace in seven quarters, led by slower growth across the industrial sector. This was compared to 6.7% in the preceding quarter. The lower-than-expected growth has tempered estimates for the full year, despite expectations of a bounce back in the second half of the fiscal.

In the automotive space, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. has raised its production capacity by a fifth in the final month of 2024, to cater to the outsized demand for its large cars. The company produced 53,361 units in December 2024—a growth of 19.92% year-on-year. At 37,779 units, SUVs accounted for two-thirds of the total production capacity. That itself is 16.8% higher than last year. The production has moved in tandem with higher sales. It should go some way to reducing wait times for the company’s vehicles.

The central government has announced the launch of another round of the Performance-Linked Incentive scheme for the steel sector, which is aimed at boosting the production of specialty steel. Participation in the scheme will remain open till Jan. 31, according to the Union Ministry of Steel. The scheme will be valid from fiscal 2026 to fiscal 2030.

In other news, the US government is in the process of removing restrictions on Indian nuclear entities, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Monday, in a bid to forge deeper energy ties with New Delhi and bolster a 20-year old landmark nuclear deal.

Washington and New Delhi have been discussing supply of US nuclear reactors to India since the mid-2000s and a deal signed by then President George W. Bush in 2007 allowed the United States to sell civilian nuclear technology to India.

India's stringent nuclear compensation laws have previously hurt deals with foreign power plant builders, leading the country to defer its target to add 20,000 MW of nuclear power from 2020 to 2030.

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