Stargate, Davos, Trump's Swearing-In Ceremony, Q3 Earnings — Week That Was
Donald Trump's swearing-in ceremony, Davos and Q3 earnings are among the major events that took place this week.
The week saw significant political and economic events that influenced market movements worldwide, including in India.
Major companies, including Hindustan Unilever Ltd., Shriram Finance Ltd. and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd., declared their third-quarter results, while the world witnessed as Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.
Trump As US President
Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States after his victory in the November election 2024.
He began his second term with a line of executive orders, actions, and directives that set the tone for his administration’s policy priorities over the next four years.
Trump's swearing-in was the witnessed by tech leaders, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg, which led to much speculation.
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum 2025 held in Davos, Switzerland, revolved around the theme of "collaboration for the Intelligent Age". It drew nearly 3,000 attendees from more than 130 countries. It included over 50 heads of state and government, along with hundreds of other top government leaders.
Artificial Intelligence has been a major topic of discussion in Davos since the start of this year's World Economic Forum. Major IT companies across the world along with a couple of Indian tech companies dominated the WEF.
WEF also focused on confidence in India's market depth and policies, the benefits of policy continuity for the country, and a sense of optimism about global growth in 2024.
Third-Quarter Earnings
Major NSE Nifty 50 companies including Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Hindustan Unilever Ltd., HDFC Bank Ltd. declared their third-quarter earnings for the fiscal year 2025.
Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. reported a 2% rise in third-quarter profit, reaching Rs 1,413.7 crore, but fell short of analysts' estimate of Rs 1,507 crore.
Hindustan Unilever Ltd.'s third-quarter profit rose 18.9% year-on-year to Rs 2,984 crore, exceeding analysts' estimate of Rs 2,659 crore.
HDFC Bank Ltd. reported a 2.2% year-on-year increase in profit for the December quarter, reaching Rs 16,736 crore. The bank’s bottom line matched analysts' expectations of Rs 16,596 crore, as per Bloomberg's poll.
Bharat Petroleum Corp. reported a 93.9% quarter-on-quarter increase in net profit for Q3, reaching Rs 4,649 crore, but missed analysts' estimate of Rs 5,265 crore.
Shriram Finance Ltd. posted a 73.4% year-on-year rise in net profit for the December quarter, reaching Rs 3,249 crore, boosted by a one-time gain of Rs 1,554 crore from the sale of Shriram Housing Finance.
Trump Announced 'Stargate'
Donald Trump in this week announced that top three technology firms will come together to form a new company which will help towards the growth of artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison met Trump at the Whitehouse and announced the company called Stargate.
Trump also said that these companies would invest $100 billion in the project, with plans to infuse up to $500 billion into Stargate in the forthcoming years. The project is expected to create 100,000 US jobs.
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