Sensex falls...
The current account deficit widened to $15.8 billion in the April-june quarter due to a larger trade gap. The CAD widened to 2.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in April-june, from 1.9% of GDP in Januarymarch, data released on Friday showed.
Jagannadham Thunuguntla, senior vice-president and head of research (wealth), Centrum Broking Ltd, said persistent weakness in the rupee is starting to show its impact on all asset classes, including equities. “The ‘sentiment risk’ is now the major challenge for stock markets. At this time, investors need to be careful and try to get into exportoriented sectors and zero-debt firms, given the bond yields have also sharply risen to 4-year highs.” According to Morgan Stanley, key risks for the economy are external headwinds such as a stronger dollar and tighter global financial conditions.
“While domestic conditions remain supportive of a sustained growth recovery, we note the general election in May 2019 could impart some uncertainty. On external front, risks could stem from adverse impact of trade protectionism on global growth and continued dollar strength forcing RBI to tighten monetary conditions more than warranted by domestic factors,” it said in a note on September 9.
UBS said tighter financial conditions, high oil prices, slowing global growth and a still muted privatecorporatecapexrecovery on legacy issues of high debt and weakened balance sheets will weigh on growth momentum.
Bloomberg contributed to this story.
Both Choksi and Nirav Modi left India in the first week of January and have not returned despite repeated summons from the investigating agencies and courts.
They have been accused by PNB of defrauding it to the tune of ₹13,500 crore.
HT has learnt that Choksi has made the Antiguan ministers for citizenship and external affairs respondents in his petition. In the interim, Choksi has requested the court for an injunction restraining the respondents from passing any order on the request of Indian government.
The person associated with the legal team of Choksi said advocate Vijay Aggarwal, who is appearing for Nirav Modi too in courts in India, was in the Caribbean country for a week to help draft the petition.
Aggarwal didn’t respond to calls and messages seeking comment.
In an interview to HT on Sunday, Choksi said he has challenged section 9 (4) of the Antiguan Extradition Act which grants power to the external affairs minister of the Caribbean country to forward the request of any Commonwealth country for extradition to the court concerned.
Choksi’s contention is that the power granted to the external affairs minister is arbitrary as it doesn’t give any right of hearing to the aggrieved party. The minister can pass the order without recording the reason.
He has also argued that the extradition act of Antigua has been lifted from the UK’S Extradition Act of 1989. But the UK’S act was amended in 2003 and this didn’t happen in the case of the Caribbean country which now needs to update its law, he said.
Choksi also claimed Antiguan laws follow English common law principles, which accord the highest importance to human rights and that he would seek the same protection sought by Mallya in the UK. India had to, apart from submitting evidence in the Mallya case, also send a video of the Arthur Road jail cell in Mumbai where Mallya will be housed if the extradition process goes through. The closing arguments in the Mallya case are scheduled for Wednesday.
In a related development, India has also set in motion the process for submitting an extradition request for Nirav Modi’s brother Neeshal Modi to Belgium. On the request of Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the money laundering aspect of the PNB fraud, Interpol has issued a red notice against Purvi Mehta, Modi’s sister and an accused in the prosecution complaint filed by ED in connection with the PNB fraud.