South Asia

After the latest round European Union sanctions, Indian private refiners who have used cheap Russian crude in order to boost their margins will need to find ways to work around it and depend more on traders for finding new markets for products. In recent years, refiners like Reliance Industries or Nayara Energy have benefitted from the pressure that sanctions imposed on Russia's crude oil prices due to its invasion in Ukraine. Many of these refiners have exported their refined products to European buyers. In its 18th package against Russia, which was approved on Friday by the European Union, it banned...

Nayara Energy, a Russian-backed refiner in India, condemned Monday the European Union sanctions against it and said that it was exploring its legal options to combat the latest "restrictive" measures. The EU approved Friday its 18th package against Russia for its war in Ukraine. This includes sanctions on Nayara Energy - a refinery owned by Rosneft, the Russian oil giant. In a press release, it stated that "Nayara Energy condemns strongly the European Union’s unjustified and unilateral decision to impose restrictions on our company." Rosneft owns 49.13% of Nayara, and a similar amount is held by Kesani Enterprises Co Ltd.,...

Reliance Industries' shares fell by about 2% Monday, after its energy and retail segments posted first-quarter results that were below analyst expectations. Reliance was the top drag on the benchmark Nifty50 index. It was one of the stocks with the highest weighting, and it weighed heavily, limiting the index's upside. As of 10:15 am IST, the index was up 0.3%. Reliance announced a 78% increase in its first-quarter profits on Friday. This was largely due to the income generated from selling its stake in Asian Paints. Analysts' estimates for the company's key segments of oil-to chemicals (O2C), retail, and other...

Rosneft - Russia's largest oil producer - slammed Sunday the European Union's sanctions against India's Nayara Energy Refinery, calling them unjustified, illegal and a direct threat to India's energy independence. The 18th package against Russia for the conflict in Ukraine was approved by the European Union on Friday. It is designed to deal further blows to Russia’s oil and energy industries. Nayara Eenrgy is one of the companies targeted. The Nayara Energy Refinery is an important strategic asset for India's energy industry. It provides a steady supply of petroleum products on the domestic market. "The imposition of sanctions on the...

Sources say that India's oil purchases from Russia increased marginally during the first half this year. Private refiners Reliance Industries Ltd. and Nayara Energy accounted for almost half the total. The data shows that India, which is the third largest oil consumer and importer in the world, received approximately 1.75 million barrels of Russian oil per day from January to June this year. This represents a 1% increase over the previous year. State companies buy Russian oil from spot markets, but the two private refiners are bound by term contracts. India's purchases at discounted prices of Russian oil increased after...

Three industry sources familiar with the matter have confirmed that India's GAIL, the state-owned gas company in India, is in the initial stages of talks to purchase liquefied gas from the proposed Alaskan LNG project. This comes as South Asia expands its capacity for imports. The discussions with Glenfarne developer come at a time when India is working to increase its energy imports to the United States in order to narrow its surplus trade as part of an broader trade deal with Washington, to avoid the impositions of heavy U.S. Tariffs. The sources stated that GAIL's talks are preliminary, as...

Reliance Industries, owned by Indian billionaire MukeshAmbani, said it would spin off its consumer products unit to create a new company to attract additional investors to the business. Reliance has a consumer business that includes brands like Campa Cola which competes against Coca-Cola and Pepsi. There are also dozens of snacks and confectionery products, such as Mondelez Cadbury chocolates, who fight for shelf space. According to a June 25 order, which was reported for the first time by Indian media, India's National Company Law Tribunal approved the internal restructuring, under which Reliance would transfer its consumer business, from its retail...

State Bank of India has classified the Reliance Communications loan account as fraudulent. The bank cites alleged misappropriation of funds dating back to 2016 in an alleged case. Reliance Communications disclosed the information in a filing of securities that included a letter from SBI dated June 23, detailing the reasons for the lender's decision. According to Indian banking laws once a fraudulent account is reported, the matter will be referred to the enforcement agencies, who can take criminal action. The borrower may not obtain further financing from banks or other financial institutions regulated by the government for a period of...

According to shipping documents and data, Venezuela exported 844,000 barrels of crude oil and fuel per day in June. This is an 8% rise from the previous months, as more cargoes were sent to China to offset the loss of U.S. markets and European ones. Washington terminated in late May a grouping of licenses which had authorized partners, such as Chevron and Repsol of the oil company PDVSA to transport Venezuelan crude for U.S. or European refineries. Since then, the state-owned firm has increased its exports to Asia. It sells its crude oil and fuels through little-known middlemen who make...

Indian stocks rose for the third consecutive session on Thursday. Gains were driven by shares of Reliance Industries, and sectors like financials and metals. The Nifty 50 gained 1.21%, reaching 25,549; the BSE Sensex rose 1.21%, to 83 755.87. This followed a 1% gain in the two previous sessions, which led to nine-month highs. The two major indexes are now about 3% lower than their previous highs, which were reached in September 2024. The Nifty 50 has risen by about 8% this year and the Sensex is up by 7%. On the day, 11 of the 13 sectors that are...

India has allocated record volumes of rice for ethanol production, as it battles with unprecedented inventories. These are expected to grow further when the new crop arrives. This is a turnaround from the earlier shortages which led to export restrictions. The conversion of more rice into ethanol helps reduce the rice stock in the world’s largest producer and exporter. It also keeps India’s ambitious ethanol blend programme on track, despite the drop in sugar cane supplies. India lifted the last of two years' worth of export restrictions in March. The poor rains had curtailed rice production. The abundant monsoon rainfall...

Reliance Industries, owned by billionaire Mukesh Amani, announced on Thursday that it had sold shares in Asian Paints worth 901 million dollars. India's largest Paintmaker is currently facing Potential antitrust scrutiny While its growth is being New aggressive tactics are a challenge Aditya Birla Group is one of the new entrants Birla Opus Urban consumers as well Cutting back Spending discretionary money is a good idea. Reliance Industries has announced that it sold its stake via affiliate Siddhant Commercials. This company held a 4.9% stake until March in the paintmaker. Shown Below Reliance Industries retains approximately 8,7 million shares after...

Gold prices were not much changed on Monday, as investors watched developments in U.S. Trade Talks and awaited possible market-moving factors, such as the U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting scheduled next week. As of 0250 GMT, spot gold remained steady at $3,352.19 an ounce. U.S. Gold Futures remained unchanged at $3,358.70. Tim Waterer, KCM Trade's Chief Market Analyst, said that the dollar has had a quiet start to the week. This has opened the door for gold to make gains in the early going. Tariff deadlines are looming. The closer we get to the August 1 deadline, without any new...

Hindustan Zinc reported a higher-than-expected profit for its first quarter on Friday. The strong demand of the metal helped to cushion the impact that geopolitical uncertainty had on prices. LSEG data shows that India's largest refined zinc producer saw its net profit fall 4.7%, to 22.34 billion Rupees ($259.2 millions), for the quarter ending June 30. This was higher than analysts' estimates of 21.02 million rupees. Analysts said that the demand for zinc, an alloy commonly used to protect steel from corrosion, increased due to the strong local steel production, which grew 8.6% year-on-year. Metal prices were impacted by geopolitical...

India's gold exports fell by 40% in June compared to the same month last year, to their lowest level for more than two years. The price surge to record levels sapped demand. A government official who refused to be identified because he wasn't authorised to speak to the media said that imports to India fell to 21 tonnes, the lowest level since April 2023. The official stated that the value of gold imports dropped to $1.84 Billion in June, from $2.48 Billion a year earlier. India has imported an average of 52.4 tons per month in the last decade. The...

India's Ola Electric forecast improved gross margins in fiscal 2026, after posting a smaller sequential loss for its first quarter. This was helped by the stronger sales of their newer, cost-efficient scooters. After the results, the shares of the company that was listed in August, last year, rose over 14% and were on course to end a five session losing streak. The Bengaluru-based company's loss for the June quarter was lower than the 8.7 Billion rupees of the previous quarter. SoftBank-backed company said it expected gross margins to increase to 35%-40% in the current financial year. This is up from...

The demand for physical gold was sluggish across the major Asian markets this week as volatility in prices weighed on sentiment. Premiums in China remained firm, while discounts in India were narrowing. Dealers in the top consumer China have charged premiums between $10 and $25 per ounce above the global benchmark spot rate, compared to premiums between $4.2-$33 from last week. On Wednesday, spot gold dropped to its lowest levels in more than a week, dropping below the $3300 mark. It then recovered to trade at $3335 by 0520 GMT Friday. In recent days, U.S. president Donald Trump has expanded...

Sources and an analyst have said that India's iron pellet makers have asked the government to curtail a surge of imports via Oman. They claim the products are from Iran, despite U.S. sanction, and warned the cheaper supplies may hurt the local industry. Lalit Ladkat of the London-based CRU Group told us that India is the third largest iron ore producer in terms of metric tonnage. However, imports between 2021-2024 were negligible, Lalit Ladkat said. Ladkat stated that the majority of these pellets were of Iranian origin, and they were shipped via Oman in order to avoid sanctions. Ladkat stated...

India's equity benchmarks dipped on Wednesday, as Reliance Industries losses and metals outweighed gains in consumer stocks. Investors remained on hold amid uncertainty surrounding U.S. trade tariffs. The Nifty 50 dropped 0.18% to 25,476.1, while the BSE Sensex fell 0.21% to 83 536.08. The mid-caps fell 0.1%, while the small-caps gained 0.6%. Reliance Industries, a heavyweight in the Nifty 50, fell by 1.2% following reports that its telecom arm Reliance Jio Platforms will not launch a stock offering this year, as planned. This delayed one of India's biggest anticipated stock offerings. On Tuesday, U.S. president Donald Trump announced that he...

Viceroy Research, a U.S. firm, has taken a short-position against Vedanta Resource, the UK-based parent company of Indian miner Vedanta. Viceroy Research claims that Vedanta is "systematically draining its Indian unit". Vedanta is planning to split up into separate listed entities. Anil Agarwal, Group Chairman of Vedanta, launched the plan to revamp the business in 2023 after an unsuccessful attempt to take Vedanta Private in 2020. Vedanta Resources announced in June 2024 it would seek to reduce its debt by $3 billion over the next three years. Viceroy Research, a short seller, said that the entire group structure was financially...

Neeraj, the former Olympic javelin champion, won gold on Saturday in Bengaluru at Kanteerava Stadium. He registered a dominant win with a throw measuring 86.18 meters in the first round. Chopra, Germany's Thomas Rohler, and Kenya's Julius Yego were among the elite athletes who competed in India's Neeraj Chopra Classic. Chopra, the winner of the Tokyo Olympics 2021 and the Paris Games 2024, was dominant throughout. He followed his winning throw with throws 84.07m, and 82.22m, in subsequent rounds, as over 14,500 spectators cheered on their favourite. "I did not expect such a large crowd and support during the first...

India announced a number of measures to increase the production of copper, including encouraging foreign companies to establish smelters in India in exchange for investing in state-owned mining operations overseas. India, the second largest refined copper importer in the world, may need to import between 91% and 97% of its copper by 2047. According to the document, despite an estimated 12,2 million metric tonnes of copper resources, only 16% are classified as reserves. This highlights limited domestic availability. The government document stated that the growing demand for imports of concentrates requires diversification in supply and acquisitions of foreign assets. It...

The demand for gold in India has decreased due to lower imports. Indian dealers are offering a discount This week, the official domestic prices will be discounted by up to $14 per ounce, including 6% import duties and 3% sales taxes, compared to last week's up to $18 discount. A Mumbai-based dealer of gold bullion with a private banking firm said that despite a weak demand for jewellery, the low imports of gold in May and early June have led to lower discounts. The price of gold in India was around 97.100 rupees for 10 grams, after reaching a record...

Gold fell 1% on Thursday as stronger-than-expected U.S. payroll data cemented expectations that the Federal Reserve is unlikely to cut interest rates as early as previously anticipated, denting the metal's appeal. As of 1303 GMT spot gold was down 1% at $3,325.48 an ounce, while U.S. futures gold were down 0.7% at $3,336.00. Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Labor Department reported that non-farm payrolls grew by 147,000 last month. Economists surveyed by had predicted payrolls to rise 110,000. A stronger dollar makes bullion more expensive for overseas buyers. The better-than-expected jobs numbers mean we are less likely to see...