Aurelia Butler

$75 per monthComplete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.What’s included Global news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print edition More

“We reject all of this strongly on behalf of the individuals,” Adani Group CFO Jugeshinder Singh told reporters at an event in Mumbai.”We believe it is not warranted, we know for sure 100% that nothing of this sort happened. If we were paying that amount of cash to someone I would certainly know, so we know nothing happened,” Singh said.U.S. authorities accused Adani, 62, his nephew and executive director Sagar Adani and managing director of Adani Green, Vneet S. Jaain, of being part of a scheme to pay bribes of $265 million to secure Indian solar power supply contracts, and misleading U.S. investors during fund raises there.The ports-to-power conglomerate has previously denied the charges as “baseless” and vowed to seek “all possible legal recourse”.”As a group there will not be any action (on the U.S. indictment) but individuals will be taking steps,” Singh said on Friday.The U.S. indictment has had major ripple effects: Adani shares have plummeted last week, at least one Indian state is reviewing its power deal with Adani, Indian parliament has been disrupted amid political uproar and TotalEnergies (EPA:TTEF) has decided it will not make any more investments in the group.India’s foreign ministry, in the country’s first official reaction to Adani’s indictment, said on Friday that bribery allegations against the billionaire was a legal issue between private companies and the U.S. Department of Justice and that New Delhi has not received any request on this case from Washington. More

Investors bought $12.78 billion worth of U.S. equity funds, a sharp jump in net purchases from the around $3.03 billion worth a week earlier, LSEG Lipper data showed.Trump selected fiscal hawk Scott Bessent for the role of U.S. Treasury Secretary last week, boosting market expectations that debt levels would remain under control in his second term.The large-cap and small-cap funds segments drew inflows totaling $5.27 billion and $3.11 billion, respectively. Multi-cap and mid-cap funds, however, saw net outflows of $419 million and $137 million, respectively.U.S. sectoral funds were in big demand, attracting about a net $4.72 billion, thanks to notable $2.08 billion, $990 million and $962 million net purchases in the financials, consumer discretionary and technology sectors, respectively.U.S. bond funds remained popular for a 26th successive week, securing about $6.92 billion in net weekly inflows during the week.Investors bought $3.01 billion of general domestic taxable fixed income funds for a 15th consecutive weekly net purchase. U.S. short-to-intermediate investment-grade funds and mortgage funds also attracted $1.53 billion and $1.48 billion, respectively, in net inflows.Investors, meanwhile, sold around a net $2.37 billion worth of U.S. money market funds following the $26.82 billion net outflow in the prior week. More

On a monthly basis, inflation was 0.3% compared with 0.2% in October, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.Kenya targets an inflation rate of between 2.5% and 7.5% in the medium term.The central bank is due to announce its latest benchmark lending rate decision on Dec. 5. In October, the bank cut its rate to 12.00% from 12.75%. More

ZURICH (Reuters) -Swiss prosecutors on Friday indicted private bank Lombard Odier and one of the firm’s former employees for “aggravated money laundering”, in a rare charge of such magnitude against one of Switzerland’s biggest and oldest wealth managers.The bank and the ex-employee are suspected of having played a decisive role in enabling the concealment of the proceeds of a criminal enterprise set up by Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the late president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, the Swiss Attorney General’s Office (OAG) said in a statement.Lombard Odier denied wrongdoing and said the investigation in question began after it had itself reported its suspicions to Swiss authorities in 2012.”The allegations are unfounded and without merit and are firmly rejected by the bank,” it said in a statement, adding that it had fully cooperated with authorities throughout.Lombard Odier, which dates back to 1796, reported total client assets of 296 billion Swiss francs ($336 billion) at the end of last year.Karimova, who was indicted by the Swiss OAG last year over alleged participation in a criminal organisation at the centre of the case, could not immediately be reached for comment.She has previously denied those allegations.Banking secrecy was once the cornerstone of Switzerland’s prowess in wealth management, but that stronghold has been gradually eroded under international pressure, making it harder for people to use the country to hide their wealth.The OAG alleged Lombard Odier failed to comply with anti-money laundering standards and its own internal guidelines in opening and managing nine bank accounts under suspicion.Prosecutors filed the charges against Lombard Odier just a few days after Credit Suisse, which is now a part of UBS, was acquitted of failing to prevent money laundering by a Bulgarian cocaine trafficking gang, overturning a 2022 conviction.Dominik Gross, an economic historian at Swiss NGO Alliance Sud, said the indictment was the latest in a growing series of setbacks for the country’s financial sector, even if it alone looked unlikely to do serious damage to Lombard Odier.”A private bank is less exposed to the markets than was the case with Credit Suisse,” he said, noting how scandals gradually sapped confidence in Credit Suisse, which collapsed in 2023.Swiss prosecutors said Karimova and another person are suspected of participating in a criminal organisation known as “The Office”, which operated in several countries, and of laundering proceeds in Switzerland, between 2005 and 2012.Karimova is currently in prison in Uzbekistan, after being jailed in 2019 for violating the terms of her house arrest and receiving a sentence in 2015 on charges of embezzlement and extortion. She was handed a further sentence in 2020.Investigations have led the OAG to believe that part of the money laundered in Switzerland may have been transferred using bank accounts at Lombard Odier in Geneva, the OAG said.The former employee of the bank worked in Lombard Odier’s private clients’ department between 2008 and 2012, and is suspected of having opened or arranged for the opening of the nine bank accounts, it added.($1 = 0.8808 Swiss francs) More

(Reuters) -U.S. stock futures rose ahead of a curtailed trading session on Black Friday, with Wall Street’s main indexes set for monthly gains as the holiday shopping season kicked off, turning the spotlight on retail stocks.Investors will scrutinize the stocks of retailers expected to attract millions of shoppers with their deep Black Friday discounts, as customers start their year-end holiday shopping.The National Retail (NYSE:NNN) Federation, a U.S. trade group, expects roughly 85.6 million shoppers to visit stores this year, up from 76 million on Black Friday in 2023.Shares of Target (NYSE:TGT) rose 0.7%, TJX (NYSE:TJX) climbed 0.5%, Walmart (NYSE:WMT) edged up 0.2% and Nike (NYSE:NKE) added 0.5% in premarket trading.”This mega promotional event is a mixed blessing for retailers. It provokes such shopping mania in the quest for a good deal that around three quarters of people will actually put off spending in the run-up to the event,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves (LON:HRGV) Lansdown.”During the promotional period, it also means selling at a discount… (which) means a smaller profit margin at a time when they are being squeezed by rising staff costs.”At 07:06 a.m., Dow E-minis were up 172 points, or 0.38%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 17.75 points, or 0.30%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 69.25 points, or 0.33%.Futures tracking the small-cap Russell 2000 index rose 1%.Wall Street’s main indexes closed lower on Wednesday, the eve of the Thanksgiving Holiday, after data showed signs of sticky inflation, bolstering bets the U.S. Federal Reserve could stay cautious on interest-rate cuts in 2025. The three main indexes were on track for monthly gains, with the benchmark S&P set for its biggest one-month rise since February. An index tracking small-cap companies hit a record high earlier in the week and was poised for its steepest monthly rise so far this year.President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election earlier this month, along with his Republican Party winning the majority in both houses of Congress, provided the latest boost for equities.Investors were pricing in expectations Trump’s policies on tax cuts, tariffs and deregulation could spur economic growth and corporate performance. However, concerns remained that the policies could also stoke upside price pressures, slow the pace of the Fed’s policy easing and weigh on global growth prevail.Traders expect the central bank to lower borrowing costs by 25 basis points at its December meeting, but see it pausing rate cuts in January and March, according to the CME Group’s (NASDAQ:CME) FedWatch.Speaking about Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on the country’s top trade partners, President Joe Biden said he hopes the president-elect will rethink his plan, saying it could “screw up” the United States’ relationships with close allies.Crypto stocks were up as bitcoin climbed 2.3%, trading at about $97,000. MicroStrategyO > rose 4.7%, MARA Holdings added 1.9%, and Bit Digital advanced 3.8%.Applied Therapeutics (NASDAQ:APLT) plunged 72% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to approve its drug for the treatment of a rare genetic metabolic disease.Analysts expect stock moves to be impacted by thin volumes after Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday. More