MARKETS | PAGE 6 BRANDWAGON | PAGE 9 Lenskart anchor book gets 20x response BACK PAGE | PAGE 18 Outdoor ad spends soar 20% this festive season AHMEDABAD, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2025 US ends automatic work permit extension FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL NO. XX 127, 40 PAGES, `12.00 P U B L I S H E D F R O M : A H M E D A B A D , B E N G A L U R U , C H A N D I G A R H , C H E N N A I , H Y D E R A B A D , K O C H I , K O L K ATA , L U C K N O W, M U M B A I , N E W D E L H I , P U N E SENSEX: 84,404.46 ▼ 592.67 NIFTY: 25,877.85 ▼ 176.05 NIKKEI 225: 51,325.61 ▲ 17.96 HANG SENG: 26,282.69 ▼ 63.45 `/$: 88.70 ▲ 0.51 `/€: 103.04 ▲ 0.35 BRENT: $64.51 ▼ $0.41 GOLD: `119,905 ▼ `462 ● Pause on rare earth curbs; Beijing to buy 12 mn tonne soybean TREVOR HUNNICUTT Busan, October 30 HIGH-STAKES TRADE MEET ■ Trump rated his meeting with Xi a "12 out of 10" shortly after he left S Korea US PRESIDENTDONALD Trump said ■ The pause ■ Tariffs on onThursdayhehadagreedwithPresion rare Chinese dentXiJinpingtotrimtariffsonChina earth curbs imports inexchangeforBeijingcrackingdown would last would on the illicit fentanyl trade,resuming for a year, be cut to US soybean purchases and keeping China's rare earthsexports flowing. commerce Trump's face-to-face talks with Xi ministry intheSouthKoreancityofBusan,their from 57% said later firstsince2019,markedthefinaleofa President Donald Trump (left) & his Chinese whirlwind Asia trip on which he also ■ The reaction to the deal was counterpart Xi Jinping shake hands before touted trade breakthroughs with AP muted in global stock markets their meeting in Busan on Thursday South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian nations. “It was an amazing oftariffsrelatedto Trump said. »INSIDE« meeting,” Trump told trade in fentanyl China agreed to pause export conCHINAALLOWS INDIAN FIRMS reporters aboardAirForce precursordrugs. trols unveiled this month on rare TO IMPORTRARE EARTHS P4 One shortly after he left Xi will work earths,elementswithvitalrolesincars, EXPLAINER:WHYISTHE RARE South Korea,ranking the EARTHS DEALIMPORTANT? P9 "very hard to stop planesandweaponsthathavebecome talksa"12outof10". the flow" of fen- Beijing'smostpotentsourceofleverage Trump said tariffs on tanyl, a deadly initstradewarwiththeUnitedStates. Chinese imports would be cut to 47% synthetic opioid that is the leading from 57%,byhalving to 10% the rate cause of American overdose deaths, Continued on Page 7 47% RESULTS CORNER Swiggy's net losswidens FOOD AND GROCERY delivery major Swiggy reported a net loss of `1,092 crore during the July-September quarter, 74.4% higher y-o-y, even as revenue surged 54%. P4 Hyundai profit rises 14% in Q2 A TIGHTER CONTROL over costs and higher export volumes have allowed Hyundai Motor India to report a 14% y-o-y growth in net profit in the second quarter. P4 ITC net up 3%, revenue falls DIVERSIFIED CONGLOMERATE ITC reported 3% y-o-y growth in its consolidated profit at `5,187 crore in the September quarter. Revenues declined 1.3% y-o-y to `21,256 crore. P5 SHORT POSITIONS OF foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have been declining in the last couple of weeks, indicating a reversal of trend, according to industry experts.This is also reflected in the numbers,with net inflows at `21, 286 crore in October – a first after three months of outflows. Data show that the percentage of FPI short positions in India’s index futures have been hovering around 80% since October 15.The reversal can be seen in the performance of benchmark indices, which have risen to a seven-month high of 5.1% in October. “The trend of FPI investments 200,000 ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION giant Larsen & Toubro(L&T)planstoexpandits data centre capacity sixfold to 200 MWfrom 32 MWas it bets big on India’s growing digital infrastructuredemand. The companyhas developed data centres in Panvel near MumbaiandChennai,andthere is a plan for another 30 MW in Mahape near Mumbai, and it plans to take it to nearly 200 MW, said R Shankar Raman, whole-time director and chief financial officer. According to industry experts, one MW of capacity requires spending of `50 crore to `70 crore,depending on the site; hence,200 MW requiresaminimumof`10,000 croreinvestment. "We are today the largest builder of data centres in India, just as an EPC (engineering,pro- 1,38,858 150,000 100,000 50,000 0 18 18,420 Oct 15, 2025 has started to change as there is excitement around GST cuts and Diwaliwas good forsectors like cars and consumer goods,” said Saurabh Mukherjea,founderandCIOofMarcellusInvestmentManagers. He added that even the valuations have become reasonable from what they were in the past 28,410 10 Oct 30, 2025 Oct 15, 2025 couple of years. Themarketshadenteredintoan oversold territory in July-end,when FPIshortpositionswerehoveringat over 90%. The last time FPI short positions were this high was in March 2023.After that,both Nifty and Sensex rallied more than 5% in onemonth,10%inthreemonths. Oct 30, 2025 RohitSrivastava,founderofIndiacharts,noted the number of short contractshasalmosthalvedfromthe beginning of this month given the anticipation that trade tensions are behindusthoughheaddedthatone shouldwaitformoreclarity. Continued on Page 7 R SHANKAR RAMAN, WHOLE-TIME DIRECTOR AND CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, L&T We are today the largest builder of data centres in India ...we’re looking at this opportunity with a lot of interest curementandconstruction)contractor.So,we are looking at this opportunitywithalotofinterest because it will help us kick-start theEPCbusinessonthedatacentremuchmorethanwhatweare currentlydoing,"Ramansaid. Continued on Page 7 Move follows similar offers byAirtel-Perplexity & ChatGPT JiouserstogetGeminiPro freeunderRIL-Googledeal URVI MALVANIA Mumbai, October 30 THE AGE OF AI RELIANCE INDUSTRIES (RIL) and Google on Thursday entered into a partnership to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence across consumer and enterprise segments in India. The move comes amid a series of alliances between telecom & technology firms and global AI players seeking to widen access to advanced AI tools in the country. Bharti Airtel was the first to start the trend when it partnered Perplexity in July to offer free one-year access to Perplexity Pro, worth `17,000 to its entire cus- partnered Perplexity in July to offer free one-year access to Perplexity Pro worth `17,000 to its entire customer base ■ Bharti Airtel ■ On Tuesday, OpenAI announced a one-year free access plan for its new ChatGPT Go, earlier priced at a concessional `399 a month tomer base. On Tuesday, OpenAI on a standalone basis,announced a one-year free access plan for its new ChatGPT Go, which was earlier priced at a concessional `399 a month, in India. 83.02 2,0 2,07 07,535 2,07,535 L&Ttargets6xrise indatacentrebiz RAGHAVENDRA KAMATH Mumbai, October 30 81.08 80.49 74.31 75.16 76.13 81.08 FPI positions in index futures Open Interest of Long Contracts Open Interest of Short Contracts 250,000 81.08 ANANYA GROVER Mumbai, October 30 % of short to total 81.35 at 3-month low WINDS OF CHANGE 83.40 ● Short positions 86.20 TrumpcutsChinatariffs by10%afterdealwithXi FPIs flash India comeback signal 91.85 RELIEFDUETOACTIONONILLICITFENTANYLTRADE ■ Google’s AI Pro plan is valued at `35,100 per user & offers 2 TB of cloud storage ■ The rollout will start with Jio’s 18–25 age group on unlimited 5G plans Under the RelianceGoogle agreement, eligible Jio users will get free access to Google’s AI Pro plan for 18 months, a package valued at `35,100 per user. Continued on Page 7 Ahmedabad