Good morning and welcome!
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 as you start the new day.
Let's start with news from overseas—there was an improvement in US manufacturing activity. Though it shrank in November, the reduction was less than anticipated. That's as a measure of new orders moved into expansion territory for the first time in eight months. That is indicating that business confidence is improving slowly. All told, the latest figure was an eighth straight month of contraction, but most of the categories that fed into the overall index showed improvement, according to a Bloomberg report.
Now, that has a bearing on interest rates. There are doubts now as to whether the Federal Open Market Committee will cut rates further in December. Before that point, of course, you're going to have the monthly jobs data later this week. Meanwhile, tech stocks gained overnight, with the Nasdaq climbing about 1%. The S&P 500 gained about 0.2% and the Dow closed lower by about 0.3%.
And it's a strong start to trade in the Asia Pacific region with all three early risers trading positive. In fact, the Nikkei 225 in Japan was higher by over a percent, last I checked.
France's Government Woes
In other international news, it's almost a given now that the French government will collapse later this week. That's after far-right and left-wing parties submitted no-confidence motions yesterday against Prime Minister Michel Barnier and his government. This will be the first French government to be forced out by no-confidence since 1962.
If the vote does go through, Barnier would have to tender his resignation, but Macron may ask him and his government to stay on in a caretaker role to handle day-to-day business, while he seeks a new prime minister. And that could happen only next year.
OPEC Production Rise
We've been keeping one eye on news from the oil producing nations. The OPEC's crude production increased for a second month as Libya continued to recover from a political feud that had stopped production from its biggest oil field. That's based on a Bloomberg report.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries pumped an average of 27.02 million barrels a day in November, up by 120,000 from the previous month. Libya accounted for most of the addition.
Of course, Libya's production is separate from the core supply agreement between the OPEC and its partners. The meeting that was supposed to take place last weekend is now scheduled for Thursday. There's wide expectation that the production increase that was initially supposed to take place at the start of the new year will be pushed by a quarter.
As of this morning, Brent crude was trading lower at just under $72 to the barrel.
IMD Warning For Kerala
In news back home, the India Meteorological Department has issued a warning of significant rainfall in Kerala due to cyclone Fengal, which last night was positioned as a strong low-pressure area over northern Tamil Nadu. The system is expected to intensify, as it moves towards the Arabian Sea, passing over northern Kerala and Karnataka today.
Heavy to very heavy rain is anticipated in the northern and central parts of Kerala on Tuesday. Intermittent light to moderate rain, with occasional thunderstorms is expected to persist over the next five days.
Safeguard Duty On Steel Imports
Turning to news from the steel industry. The steel ministry has proposed a 25% safeguard duty on import of certain steel items into the country. The proposal came at a meeting between Union Minister of Steel H D Kumaraswamy and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal in the national capital. That's a PTI report.
In other news, the Government has confirmed that it has decided to update the base year for calculating gross domestic product from 2011-12 to 2022-23, according to a media statement by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation. The Ministry also announced the decision in a written response in Parliament.
The ministry officials had indicated that the revised GDP series is expected to launch in February 2026.
RBI On Frozen Accounts
Just a couple more news points to tell you about. The Reserve Bank of India has advised banks to urgently bring down the number of frozen accounts and make the process of activation of such accounts smoother and hassle-free. This will include updating KYC through internet banking, non-home branches, and the video customer identification process.
And finally, GST authorities have booked a Rs 722.43 crore tax evasion case against crypto exchange and Binance Group company Nest Services Ltd. The Parliament was informed of this yesterday. In total, cases have been booked against 17 cryptocurrency exchanges for GST evasion of Rs 824.14 crore. Recovery of Rs 122.29 crore in interest, penalty and taxes has been made by GST authorities.
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