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Tag: World News

  • Rupee slips for third session in a row; oil near $113 a barrel

    Rupee slips for third session

    The rupee depreciated for the third straight session to close 10 paise lower at 76.29 against the dollar on Monday, tracking the strength of the greenback overseas, coupled with foreign fund outflows.

    At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened lower at 76.41 against the American currency, and shuttled between a high of 76.20 and a low of 76.43. It settled at 76.29, down 10 paise over its previous close of 76.19. The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.20 per cent higher at 100.70.

    The rupee also weakened as hawkish Fed officials and dovish ECB continued to push the bond yields higher. The benchmark 10-year bond yield traded down to 7.15 per cent after earlier rising to a high of 7.26 per cent.

    Sriram Iyer, senior research analyst at Reliance Securities, said the rupee weighed was weighed down by the rising crude prices and bond yields.

    Oil prices rose on Monday as the shut down of Libya’s biggest oil field in an already under-supplied market overshadowed signals that China’s lockdowns are weighing on its economic growth.

    Brent crude futures rose above $113 a barrel for the first time since late March. West Texas Intermediate traded around $108. Global markets face further interruptions to oil supplies after demonstrations against Libya’s PM Abdul Hamid Dbeibah shut down Sharara, the country’s biggest oil field.

  • Gold up as dollar, yields weaken; progress in Russia-Ukraine talks weighs

    Gold prices rose on Wednesday, supported by a dip in the U.S. dollar and Treasury yields, though signs of progress in Russia-Ukraine peace talks dented the metal’s appeal as a safe haven and kept gains in check.

    Spot gold was up 0.3% to $1,923.95 per ounce by 0210 GMT. U.S. gold futures rose 0.5% at $1,927.70.

    The metal fell as much as 1.8% on Tuesday to its lowest since Feb. 28 at $1,889.45.

    “(Weaker) dollar has provided a level of support for gold…bond prices bounced from a key level of support yesterday which helped push yields lower despite the supposed risk-on rally seen across equities. And that’s provided another pillar of support for gold,” City Index senior market analyst Matt Simpson said.

    Underpinning gold, investors remain wary over Russia’s true intentions over their pledge to scale down ‘military operations’, he added.

    Ukraine reacted with scepticism to Russia’s promise in negotiations to scale down military operations around Kyiv and another city as some Western countries expected Moscow to intensify its offensive in other parts of the country.

    The dollar index slid to a more than one-week low in the previous session, making gold less expensive for other currency holders. [USD/]

    U.S. benchmark 10-year yields also slipped from near three-year highs, and lower yields decrease the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion. [US/]

    Holdings of the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, slipped 0.2% to 1,091.44 tonnes on Tuesday. [GOL/ETF]

    Spot silver was up 0.1% at $24.78 per ounce and platinum rose 0.9% to $991.49.

    Palladium gained 1.5% to $2,182.15, after dipping to a more than two-month low of $2,032.97 in the last session.

    The auto-catalyst metal has tumbled nearly 40% since scaling an all-time peak on March 7 as supply concerns from Russia eased.

  • Over 6.2 crore ITRs, 21 lakh audit reports filed on new e-filing portal

    Over 6.2 crore income tax returns and about 21 lakh tax audit reports have been filed on the new e-filing portal since June last year. The new income tax portal was launched on June 7, 2021.

    “More than 6.2 crore Income Tax Returns (ITRs) and about 21 lakh major Tax Audit Reports (TARs) have been filed on the new e-Filing portal of the Income Tax Department as on 10th February 2022,” the tax department said in a statement.

    Out of the 6.2 crore ITRs filed for AY 2021-22, 48 per cent are ITR-1 (2.97 crore), 9 per cent ITR-2 (56 lakh), 13 per cent ITR-3 (83 lakh), and 27 per cent ITR-4 (1.66 crore), ITR-5 (11.3 lakh), ITR-6 (5.2 lakh) and ITR-7 (1.41 lakh).

    The government had in January extended till March 15 the deadline for corporates to file income tax returns for the fiscal ended March 2021, while the same for filing tax audit report and transfer pricing audit report for 2020-21 fiscal is February 15.

    ITR Form 1 (Sahaj) and ITR Form 4 (Sugam) are simpler forms that cater to a large number of small and medium taxpayers.

    Sahaj can be filed by an individual having income of up to Rs 50 lakh and who receives income from salary, one house property/other sources (interest etc). ITR-4 can be filed by individuals, HUFs and firms with total income of up to Rs 50 lakh and having income from business and profession. ITR-3 is filed by people having income as profits from business and trusts, respectively.

  • AI firm Fractal becomes second unicorn in 2022 with $360 million investment from TPG

    Fractal, a US-based artificial intelligence firm, becomes the second unicorn in 2022 with the latest investment of $360 million from the private equity firm TPG Capital Asia. The funding will close by the first quarter of 2022.

    With the latest investment, the company’s valuation has exceeded $1 billion, according to industry sources. Mamaearth, valued at $1.2 billion, was the first unicorn in 2022.

    After Mu Sigma, this is the second firm in India in the pure-play analytics space to reach the unicorn status. This also comes at a time when the analytics space is gaining huge interest from investors. For instance, Chennai-based LatentView Analytics saw a huge response for its IPO last year.

    Fractal was founded in 2000 in Mumbai and established its base in the US in 2005 by five people including group CEO Srikanth Velamakanni and Pranay Agrawal, CEO. It employs 3,500 people across 16 global locations, including the United States, the UK, Ukraine, India, Singapore, and Australia. Fractal’s products include Qure.ai to assist radiologists in making better diagnostic decisions.

    As part of the transaction, TPG’s Puneet Bhatia and Vivek Mohan will join Fractal’s board of directors. All current directors including Gavin Patterson, Rohan Haldea, Shashank Singh, and Gulu Mirchandani will continue to serve on the company’s board.

    Pranay Agrawal, Co-founder & CEO, Fractal, said in a statement, “The demand for AI is surging across the enterprise. Our AI solutions and products, along with our globally recognised team of experts, empower these organisations to realise and maximise their full potential. As we continue to build upon this foundation, the investment from TPG will accelerate our ability to scale and meet this rising demand globally.”

    Srikanth Velamakanni, Co-founder and Group CEO, Fractal, said in the statement, “TPG capabilities across all our markets and their proven success in building and supporting top AI providers is the perfect complement to the partnership we have enjoyed with Apax, whose insight and expertise have been instrumental in accelerating our growth.”

  • Asia stocks, oil struggle as Omicron worries weigh

    TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian stock markets were generally weaker  in holiday-thinned trading on Monday, as uncertainty over the economic impact of the Omicron coronavirus variant weighed on investor sentiment.

    U.S. airlines have cancelled or delayed thousands of flights over the past three days due to COVID-19-related staff shortages, while several cruise ships had to cancel stops after outbreaks on-board.

    In Asia, China reported its highest daily rise in local COVID-19 cases in 21 months over the weekend as infections more than doubled in the northwestern city of Xian, the country’s latest COVID hot spot.

    Mainland Chinese shares, though, were mixed, with Shanghai’s benchmark sliding 0.37% but an index of blue chips edged 0.05% higher.

    Australia, Hong Kong and Britain are among markets closed Monday for holidays.

    “There is concern over the widening spread of the Omicron variant, which is overall making people cautious about taking stocks higher” in Japan, said a market participant at a Japanese securities firm.

    Wall Street trading resumes later in the global day following a holiday on Friday. U.S. stocks closed at records on Thursday amid signs Omicron may cause a milder level of illness, even as the highly transmissible strain led to a surge in case numbers around the world.

    In the foreign exchange markets, the U.S. dollar continued to languish near the bottom of its range of the past month against a basket of major peers, after hitting a 16-month high in November as Federal Reserve policymakers turned more hawkish.

    Thet flat at 96.116, towards the bottom of the range from 95.544 to the 16-month peak at 96.938 reached on Nov. 24.

    In the crude market, U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures fell 59 cents to $73.20 a barrel. The contract did not trade on Friday because of the U.S. market holiday.