BACK PAGE | PAGE 16 COMPANIES | PAGE 4 Rohit to 'rest' for last Test, Bumrah to lead INTERNATIONAL | PAGE 7 Biz with high margins focus area for Upgrad LUCKNOW, FRIDAY, JANUARY 3, 2025 Cybertruckexplodesnear TrumphotelinLasVegas FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL 18 NO. 29, 20 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: 79,943.71 ▲ 1,436.30 NIFTY: 24,188.65 ▲ 445.75 NIKKEI 225: 39,894.54 ▼ 386.62 HANG SENG: 19,623.32 ▼ 436.63 `/$: 85.75 ▼ 0.11 `/€: 88.77 ▼ 0.07 BRENT: $75.60 ▲ $0.96 GOLD: `76,720 ▲ `412 INDICES SOAR NEARLY 2%AS FPIs TOO JOIN THE PARTY Bulls have a blast FTSE 100 Index ▲ 0.02 78,507 Dax Index ▼ -0.27 Nifty Auto Nifty IT ing days of January. While the indices fell up to 0.51% during the last five days of December, they recorded a robust 2.3% rise in the first two days of January. Positive developments,such as strong growth in auto sales and good and services tax collections in December,signalling a recovery 5.61 Shriram Finance 4.53 2.26% Euro Stoxx 50 Pr Maruti Suzuki 3.79% 6.32 Top gainers (%) Bajaj Finance Jan 1 (close) (%, Jan 2*) 1.83% 8.55 THE INDIAN STOCK market witnessed a sharp rally on Thursday after both foreign and domestic institutional investors went on a buying spree. The Sensex reclaimed the »INSIDE« 80,000 mark briefly, before RUPEE closing a tad SLIPS lower at 79,943, FURTHER up 1,436 points RALLY or 1.83% while RIDING the Nifty also ON HOPE soared 445.75 PAGE 6 points, or 1.88%, to close at 24,188.65. The rally was primarily driven by auto,information technology and financials. Today’s rally is often referred to as ‘Santa rally’, as it is associated with an upsurge in stock prices during the last five trading days of December and the first two trad- Sensex 79,943 7.84 KISHOR KADAM Mumbai, January 2 Global markets performance Jan 2 (close) Bajaj Finserv rises by `6 lakh crore LAUNCH PAD Eicher Motors ● Investorwealth ▼ -0.89 CAC 40 Index ▼ -1.11 Shanghai Se Composite ▼ -2.66 *over previous close; At 5 PM IST in consumption activity, along with a favourable 2025 outlook for the technology sector, lifted market sentiment. Indian benchmark indices outperformed their majorAsian peers,emerging as the region's top performers. Normsforreleaseof Financialsectorfor capextostateseased taxreliefonFDs PRASANTASAHU New Delhi, January 2 THE CENTRE HAS relaxed a clutch of norms regarding the release of interest-freecapexloanstothestate governments to ensure that the entire sum of `1.5 lakh crore earmarked for2024-25 is fullyutilised during the year, and help arrest a decline in public capex. Themove is aimed at minimising a likely shortfall in actual budgetary capital expenditure from the budgeted level of `11.1 lakh crore. By Novemberend,`5.13lakhcroreofthe capex budget for the yearwas spent, whichwasdown12.3%onyear. “Wewill achieve 100% of the target set for the capex loans to states in the current financial year,” a senior officialsaid.Around`90,000crore or two-thirds of the annual outlayloans havealreadybeenreleased.Despitean early start in the previous fiscal,the AHEADOFTHEBudget,financialsecCentre could release only `61,500 torandcapitalmarketrepresentatives crore inApril-Decemberof FY24.The onThursdaysought a lowering of tax accelerationthistimearoundassumes oninterestincomefromfixeddeposits importanceasthe on the lines roll-out was stagof capital gains geredanddelayed tax on equities, this fiscal due to a dedicated general elections refinancing winand the full Buddow for NBFCs getinJuly. and incentiv2025-26 Of the grantising long-term like loans earsavings. marked for FY25, `95,000 crore is Tosupportdepositmobilisationby linked to reforms and other criteria banks amid the flight of funds from specified by the Centre for states banks to the capital market, banks including capex,efforts to stimulate suggested finance minister Nirmala industrial growth, assistance for Sitharaman to treat income from completion of major infra projects, fixeddepositsonparwithcapitalgains urban and rural land reformsetc. tax on equities instead of the extant practice of taxing them as per the tax slabofindividuals. ■ PAGE 2 Continued on Page 12 KEY SUGGESTIONS ■ A dedicated refinancing window for non-banking financial companies RUN-UP TO THE BUDGET Treat income from bank FDs at par with capital gains ■ ■ Removal of tax deducted at source on non-individual borrowers from NBFCs ■ Tweaking of Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act Continued on Page 12 SebidebarsKetanParekhagain JOYDEEP GHOSH Mumbai, January 2 KETAN PAREKH, WHO was debarred by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) two decades ago after his conviction in the infamous stock market scam in 2000, is back in the markets regulator’s bad books. On Thursday, in an interim order, Sebi debarred Parekh, Singaporebased Rohit Salgaonkar and 20 other entities, besides impounding `65.77 crore of wrongful gains. According to the markets regulator’s investigation,Salgaonkar and Parekh used non-public information (NPI) related to trades by a major US-based fund house, managing $2.5 trillion, globally referred to as the ‘Big Client’,whose funds are registered as foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in India. Sebi’s findings indicate the alleged scheme was running for almost two-and-ahalf years and were caught following a new alert model for identifying information-based trades. Continued on Page 12 Lucknow