UBS has turned bullish on emerging markets (EM), including India, as it finds benign macro trends, positive momentum in earnings revisions, and resilient EM currencies helping these economies sustain higher valuations and attracting flows. Among regions, it has upgraded Mainland China to 'attractive' and China Tech to 'most attractive', while downgrading Philippines to 'neutral'.
UBS stepping in to save Credit Suisse with a $3.2-billion acquisition has provided the beleaguered Swiss bank's India employees a glimmer of hope. The surprise deal - engineered by the Swiss government - has triggered optimism of fewer job losses at Credit Suisse's India unit and better synergies at key verticals, such as wealth management and investment banking. "UBS is a much stronger hand. Coming within its fold will give Credit Suisse's wealth management and investment banking divisions a good home.
Fair-trade regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Thursday cleared the proposed merger of Credit Suisse Group AG with UBS Group AG. Both Credit Suisse Group AG (Credit Suisse) and UBS Group AG (UBS) are multinational investment banks and financial services companies founded and based in Switzerland.
The move comes close on the heels of rival Credit Suisse Group announcing about 2,000 job cuts last month.
According to RBI data, it had 57 employees in India at the end of March 2012.
We wish to build a leading investment banking set up in India.
.jpg)
The move draws a line under the Swiss government's rescue of UBS nearly five years after the bank threatened to collapse under the weight of more than $50 billion in losses on mortgage securities.
A 31-year-old staffer was arrested in the early hours of Thursday for causing a $2-billion loss to Swiss investment banking giant UBS on account of unauthorised trading at the bank's London office.
UBS has already recruited 180 people in the city.
Citibank on Wednesday joined the list of foreign banks that have exited retail banking business in India. Mumbai-based Axis Bank completed acquisition of Citigroup's consumer business for Rs 11,603 crore. Under the deal, Axis acquired consumer banking businesses of Citibank India, which includes credit cards, retail banking, wealth management and consumer loans.
Citi Bank on Wednesday joined the list of foreign banks that have exited the retail banking business in India as the US-based banking giant announced selling its consumer banking portfolio to Axis Bank for an estimated Rs 12,325 crore. Global banking majors such as ANZ Grindlays, RBS, Commonwealth Bank of Australia have scaled down their operations in India. In a mega-deal announcement on Wednesday, Axis Bank and Citibank said their boards have approved acquisition of Citibank's consumer businesses in India by Axis Bank.
Gold price outlook 2025: Gold prices that have climbed over 30 per cent so far in 2024 to Rs 7,300 per gram in the Indian markets (up 28 per cent in dollar terms till November-end), are set for their best calendar year performance in 10 years, suggests a recent report by World Gold Council (WGC). However, this stellar run, analysts believe, may not carry through till the end of 2025 in the backdrop of economic and geopolitical headwinds.
The upcoming Union Budget to be presented on February 1 is likely to assume a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) growth between 10 and 10.5 per cent for FY26, a Business Standard poll of 10 economists showed. The first advance estimates released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) had estimated a nominal GDP growth of 9.7 per cent for FY25. Nominal GDP, calculated at current market prices, factors in the effect of inflation. It is used as the base to calculate crucial macroeconomic indicators, such as fiscal deficit, revenue deficit, and debt-to-GDP ratio.
Over the next three - six months, UBS believes earnings will be the main driver for EM equities outperformance.
UBS India, the domestic franchise of Swiss banking major UBS Group which last month surrendered its banking licence, has started laying off around 50 people, who are affected by the decision.
For the banking system a new cycle starts in FY2024. It's fraught with fresh challenges on asset quality and profitability, warns Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
India's GDP growth will slow down to 5.5 per cent in FY24 from the 6.9 per cent expected in the current fiscal 2022-23, a Swiss brokerage said on Wednesday. The slowdown was attributed to slowing global growth and tightening of monetary policies in the report by economists at UBS India. It said India will be among the "lesser affected economies" in the world, but made it clear that the world's fifth largest economy is not immune from global headwinds.
Swiss brokerage UBS joins European banking peer HSBC in shutting down its offshore derivative business
Vodafone Idea's (Vi's) subscriber loss reduced to a seven-month low in March, and alongside the company added 1.1 million broadband users after two months of net loss -- two things analysts have noted as key trends that need to be monitored. While Vi has been losing customers for more than two and a half years now, the churn reduced to below a million after five straight months in March, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) data has shown. "Jio's softer than usual subscriber growth in March, and VIL's slowing subscriber market share loss are key trends to keep an eye on going forward," global investment banking and financial services major UBS said in an analyst note.
While Raghunathan is a named accused in the CBI's case registered in October last year, Nedungadi had resigned recently from the post of CFO of the UB group.
Jain, who, landed the top spot at Deutsche in 2012, had to resign following criticism from investors
Indian entrepreneurs who made global acquisitions are bullish since they've achieved margin expansions which were even higher than what they'd originally anticipated, and global managements have accepted Indian shareholders very well.
In a thread of tweets, Mallya claimed, "The airlines struggled financially partly because of high ATF prices. Kingfisher was a fab airline that faced the highest ever crude prices of $ 140/barrel. Losses mounted and that's where banks money went. I have offered to repay 100 % of the principal amount to them. Please take it."
According to a Thomson Financial research, no Indian investment bank figures in the top ten list of the M&A deals that was struck this year, which was topped by UBS.
Morgan Stanley removed banking stocks from its model portfolio when it slashed its weighting on the sector by 500 basis points. Several foreign brokerages, such as UBS, JP Morgan, and Credit Suisse, of late, have also become less optimistic about banking stocks.
Last Saturday, USL board asked its Chairman Vijay Mallya to quit.
India accounted for a meagre 5.1 per cent of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals among emerging countries in the first nine months this year, the lowest in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) nations.
New gold schemes may perform better than previous plans: UBS.
While a coordinated aggressive monetary easing from the central banks is most likely to offer some respite in the near-term, it is unlikely to improve the sentiments.
If Hindenburg or its partner do not join the investigation, then Sebi may pass an ex-parte order against it, which may be enforced as a foreign award in US courts.
Just ahead of its mega FPO opening to public investors, Vodafone Idea (VIL) has announced closure of its anchor book allocation, raising about Rs 5,400 crore from marquee global as well as domestic investors, according to a statutory filing by the telco. This could be the third-largest anchor book after One 97 Communications and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). One 97 Communications and LIC had raised Rs 8,235 crore and Rs 5,627 crore in the anchor round, respectively.
This time, the global appetite for risk is in favour of India.
SBI has hired six global giants -- Citigroup, UBS, Barclays Bank, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan -- for the sale of dollar-denominated bonds, they added.
The general elections in April/May 2024 are expected to add volatility to the Indian markets, keeping investors on their toes.
UBS reduced its Nifty target to 8,600 by December from 9,200.
'The recovery process for the Indian economy would be gradual'.
India, best-performing among emerging markets in the first four months of 2017, has since ceded this position to South Korea.
Ukraine fears weighed on sentiment, with Russia rejecting a peace proposal amidst civil war-like situation in the former Soviet union republic.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances