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“Certainly, massive new investment in infra, energy, transport and communications can, and will, help boost trade even further. But this is a proposed stimulus to something that already exists. The Middle East is already home to a large Indian diaspora, and there are very close trade ties already; the same with Europe,” Frankopan said.

The precise route map of the corridor will be figured out when the stakeholders meet in the next two months. But a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) unveiled on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ meeting shed light on its broader contours — a transit through India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and Europe. The proposal also includes a new railway line across the Arabian peninsula, with cables for electricity and digital connectivity and pipes for clean hydrogen running in parallel.

A former Chinese official has criticized the country’s property market, stating that even with a population of 1.4 billion, there are still too many empty apartments. China’s property sector has been struggling since 2021, when real estate giant China Evergrande defaulted on its debt. The National Bureau of Statistics reveals that as of August, there is a combined floor area of 648 million square meters of unsold homes.

The recent increase in borrowing costs across Corporate America is causing concern for stock investors, particularly in the tech sector. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s commitment to keeping interest rates adjusted for inflation elevated has sparked a sell-off in Big Tech stocks. The rising cost of capital is seen as detrimental to equity valuations, and skepticism is growing as the cost of borrowing climbs. Higher rates are pressuring companies and threatening to impact their valuations. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 has already dropped over 5% in September.

Despite the corrective decline, the volatility index, as represented by India VIX, did not rise. In fact, it declined marginally by 2.20% to 10.66 on a weekly basis. This continues to keep the markets vulnerable to incremental corrective retrenchment.

Going ahead, as the traditional demand drivers of industrial metals have stalled, the short-term price outlook remains under pressure. Though the new demand areas like the clean energy sector are on the cards, they are unlikely to boost prices in the immediate run.

Sustained negative returns over two consecutive years are very rare. Furthermore, investors must also be prepared for time corrections, where the market may take an average of around 30 months over the past decade to recover and reach previous peak levels.

The other interesting piece is that 95% of the volume in the options segment is in index options. The following table shows volume break-up as of August 22, 2023, and what becomes very clear is that the stock options are a tiny part of the total options market.

India’s economy is doing well when compared to other emerging as well as developed economies. Further, inflation is also likely to trend lower in the coming months, which will keep conditions conducive for the Reserve Bank of India to stay put on rates.

The United States is concerned about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s comments about India’s potential involvement in the murder of a Khalistani activist. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for India to cooperate with Canada’s investigation into the killing, stating that accountability is important. The US has been consulting and coordinating closely with Canada on this matter. India has rejected Canada’s allegations, calling them absurd and motivated. The diplomatic dispute has put President Joe Biden in a difficult position as he tries to strengthen ties with both India and Canada.