Mumbai: BofA Securities has turned constructive on the Nifty after nearly two years of caution, projecting the index to reach 26,200 by December 2026. This implies an upside of about 12% from current levels. The brokerage, which has maintained a cautious stance since August 2024, said five of the eight risks it had previously flagged have either materialised or are now reflected in valuations.

BofA said the two key near-term risks facing the market are potential US Federal Reserve rate hikes and heavy primary-market issuances. It expects both risks to peak by October, creating room for a Nifty rally from November. The impact of artificial intelligence on Indian employment remains a longer-term structural risk.

Read more: FIIs sell Indian shares worth Rs 14,475 crore in Sept; analyst warns soaring bond yields may deepen selloff

The brokerage expects about $30 billion in primary-market issuances between September and December, with activity peaking in October. It also expects the Federal Reserve to raise rates by 75 basis points during the period, compared with roughly 35 basis points currently priced in by markets.

BofA believes the earnings downgrade cycle may have peaked after consensus FY27 earnings estimates for the Nifty were cut by 230 basis points year-to-date. It forecasts Nifty earnings growth of 10% in FY27 and 15% in FY28, compared with Street estimates of 12% and 15%, respectively.

Read more: India beats a hasty retreat from a crucial market reform
The brokerage has shifted its preference from small- and mid-cap stocks to large caps after broader market indices outperformed the Nifty by 13-20% year-to-date. The valuation premium for small- and mid-cap stocks currently stands at 43%, down from a peak of 53%.

Within the Nifty universe, BofA is positive on private banks, NBFCs, automobiles, upstream energy, cement, regulated power utilities, jewellery, quick commerce and EPC contractors. It remains cautious on PSU banks, insurance, steel, downstream energy, consumer staples, telecom, healthcare, industrials and information technology.

The cost will be funded by an increase in business rates for larger firms

The Welsh Government has announced plans for a 30% reduction in business rates for smaller firms trading in the hard-pressed hospitality and leisure sectors.

Subject to Senedd approval the reduction, from the start of the 2027-28 financial year, will apply to around 20,000 commercial properties with rateable values below £51,000. The Welsh Government said it will result in a collective fall in business rates for supported smaller firms of around £30m annually.

It will be cost neutral for the Plaid Cymru administration as it will be funded by an increase in business rates for all large businesses, defined as having properties with a rateable value of more than £100,000.

However, the Welsh Government said the difference between the higher multiplier and the standard multiplier for 2027-28 will increase by less than 1p to 2p in the pound.

The 30% reduction will apply to: hospitality venues ;pubs, restaurants, cafés and bars; food courts; licensed clubs and live music venues; visitor accommodation, hotels, guest houses and hostels leisure venues; cinemas, theatres, libraries, museums and gyms.

This permanent support will exceed the 15% temporary relief for food and drink hospitality currently in place.

First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth said:“Our high streets are the heartbeat of communities right across Wales, and the businesses that fill them deserve our backing.

“This 30% cut to rates for pubs, cafés, gyms, hotels and so many other local favourites is about giving those businesses the confidence to invest, grow and keep serving the communities that rely on them. We’re making the system work better for the sectors that bring our town centres to life.”

The Welsh Government said the change sits alongside the work of its new town centres taskforce, chaired by Simon Gibson, which will consider what more tailored support individual town centres need, recognising that different parts of Wales face different challenges.

Cabinet Minister for Finance Elin Jones said:“This significant and permanent change will make a real difference to eligible hospitality and leisure businesses right across Wales.

“We’ve taken a balanced approach, ensuring this support is affordable while protecting the vital contribution business rates make to our public services – targeting help where it will have the greatest impact on our high streets.”

The precise values of all multipliers for 2027-28 will be confirmed as part of budget preparations, following the UK Government’s autumn Budget.

Laura Doel, TUC Cymru general secretary said: “We support any measures which the government can take to reduce the cost of doing business, and the cost of living.

“However, any government must cautiously weigh these benefits with any proposed tax cut and the potentially negative impact that would have on the government’s ability to invest in our vital public services, and the workers that make them tick.”

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang received a surprise phone call from President Donald Trump on Monday, in which the president dismissed fears that AI poses an existential threat to humanity and argued against calls to slow frontier AI development.

While speaking on stage at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles, Huang answered the call and placed Trump on speakerphone for the audience of thousands, as shown in a video of the event shared by the All-In Podcast. 

“I’m telling you, it’s all a hoax,” Trump said. “The data centers are great, and they make people wealthy, and they make states wealthy, and it’s the oil of the next 20–25 years.”

Trump said critics are “playing right into the hands of a lot of people that don’t want to see it happen.”

TRUMP RESPONDS TO RISING AI SAFETY CONCERNS, INSISTS TECH WILL BE ‘MORE GOOD THAN BAD’

“That could be political people. It could also be China. And we’re not going to let that happen,” Trump said.

The president also rejected the idea that AI could pose an existential threat to humanity.

“The robots are not going to be taking over the world,” the president added.

Separately on Monday, Trump shared a series of Truth Social posts defending AI development and criticizing calls for increased regulation.

“AI taking over the World, destroying Humanity, and all other things bad, is a HOAX,” Trump wrote.

TECH CEO WARNS CENTRALIZED AI POWER COULD LEAD TO ‘COUNTERFEIT’ HUMANS, TECHNOCRATS SEEKING CONTROL

Trump’s remarks come as the debate over AI safety intensifies across Silicon Valley and Washington.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay over the weekend urging the industry to “slow the pace” of frontier AI development.

Amodei argued that while AI could deliver enormous benefits, companies should strengthen safeguards as the technology becomes increasingly capable.

“AI brings risks, and because it is such a powerful technology, these risks are serious. I’ve written a lot about them too. They include the risk of losing control of AI systems, misuse of AI for cyberattacks and bioterrorism, and serious economic disruption,” Amodei wrote.

SAM ALTMAN IDENTIFIES TWO BIGGEST RISKS FACING AI’S FUTURE

The essay also drew support from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

“Dario is right,” Musk wrote on X.

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Altman echoed the sentiment, writing: “I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier. This has been a primary topic of discussions we’ve had at OpenAI in recent weeks.”

Nvidia could not immediately be reached by FOX Business for comment.

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Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

LOS ANGELES — “The Pitt” and “Hacks” swept the top drama and comedy honors at the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday night, while “Hacks” star Jean Smart made television history, tying the all-time record for the most acting Emmys ever won by a single performer.

The ceremony, held at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles and hosted by “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star Mariska Hargitay, saw HBO Max’s medical drama “The Pitt” repeat as Outstanding Drama Series for the second consecutive year, beating out “The Diplomat,” “The Gilded Age,” “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” “Paradise,” “Pluribus,” “Slow Horses” and “Your Friends & Neighbors.” The win cements “The Pitt” as the show to beat heading into future award seasons, following a first season that already yielded three Emmys, including drama series, lead actor for Noah Wyle and supporting actress for Katherine LaNasa.

Wyle’s win this year for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series marked his first Emmy after roughly three decades in the industry, following earlier acclaim for his role on “ER.” LaNasa completed the show’s sweep of the major drama acting categories she was nominated in, winning Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Nurse Dana Evans, her second consecutive win in the category. “The Pitt” entered the night with 25 total nominations, the most of any series this year.

On the comedy side, “Hacks” claimed Outstanding Comedy Series, edging out “Abbott Elementary,” “The Bear,” “Margo’s Got Money Troubles,” “Nobody Wants This,” “Only Murders in the Building,” “Shrinking” and “Widow’s Bay.” The HBO Max comedy entered the night with a record 24 nominations for a single comedy season, surpassing the previous mark of 23 set by “The Bear” in 2024 and matched by “The Studio” in 2025.

The night’s most historic moment belonged to Smart, who won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Deborah Vance, marking her fifth consecutive win in the category across all five seasons of “Hacks.” The victory made Smart the first performer in television history to win an acting Emmy for every eligible season of a series, and brought her career total to eight acting Emmys, tying the all-time record held by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Cloris Leachman. Smart opened her acceptance speech with a joke before turning reflective. “Just the men stay standing, the girls get to sit down,” she said, before closing with a simple summary of her five-year run: “What a ride this has been!”

Allison Janney also reached the same milestone Monday night, winning Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as President Grace Penn on Netflix’s “The Diplomat,” her eighth career Emmy win, tying her as well with Louis-Dreyfus and Leachman for the most acting Emmys by a performer.

Elsewhere in the drama categories, Rhea Seehorn won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Apple TV’s freshman series “Pluribus,” following two prior nominations for her work on “Better Call Saul.” Vince Gilligan took the directing prize for “Pluribus” as well, for the episode “We Is Us.”

In the limited series and movie categories, Matthew Rhys had a night to remember, winning both Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Netflix’s “The Beast in Me” and, later in the ceremony, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his role in “Widow’s Bay,” making him the first male performer to win two lead-actor Emmys in the same year. Accepting his comedy award, Rhys credited “Widow’s Bay” creator Katie Dippold’s imagination for his success, joking about the “depraved and twisted mind” behind the show, as his partner, actress Keri Russell, cheered him on from the audience. Sally Field won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for “Remarkably Bright Creatures.”

“Widow’s Bay,” the macabre Apple TV comedy about a cursed New England island, entered the night with 19 total nominations and had already collected eight wins during the Creative Arts Emmys held the weekend prior, making it the most-awarded show heading into Monday’s main ceremony alongside “The Pitt.” The show added to that total Monday, with Kate O’Flynn winning Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and Stephen Root winning Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, both first-time Emmy wins.

The Creative Arts Emmys, held the weekend before the main telecast, had already recognized “DTF St. Louis” with six wins, including supporting acting honors for David Harbour and Linda Cardellini, along with directing and writing prizes that the Television Academy moved off this year’s live broadcast.

Hargitay, making history of her own as the first woman to host the Primetime Emmys in 15 years, entered the ceremony fresh off her own Emmy wins the previous weekend for producing and directing “My Mom Jayne,” a documentary about her mother, actress Jayne Mansfield. Hargitay first won a competitive Emmy 20 years earlier, taking home Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for “Law & Order: SVU” in 2006.

Tonight’s broadcast also carried an air of finality for several long-running and recently concluded series receiving recognition for the last time, including “Hacks,” which wrapped its five-season run this spring, along with “Euphoria” and “Stranger Things,” both nearing the end of their runs on the network and streaming landscape.

With “The Pitt” and “Hacks” now firmly established as the drama and comedy standard-bearers of the past two Emmy cycles, and with both shows continuing into further seasons, attention will likely turn next year to whether either program can extend its dominance, or whether freshman contenders like “Pluribus” and “Widow’s Bay,” each already amassing double-digit nominations and wins in their debut seasons, can mount a serious challenge in 2027.

LONDON — A new account from a longtime royal biographer is rewriting a key chapter of Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales’s origin story, revealing the couple had already been on a private date together months before the 2002 charity fashion show long credited with sparking William’s romantic interest in his university friend.

For years, royal lore has held that William first became romantically attracted to Kate after watching her walk the runway at a student charity fashion show called “Don’t Walk” in March 2002, sponsored by Yves Saint Laurent. Seated in the front row, William reportedly turned to a friend after seeing Kate appear in a see-through tunic made of gold and black fabric, trimmed with blue ribbon and worn over a black bandeau bra and bikini bottoms, and remarked, “She’s hot!”

But royal biographer Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, says that account leaves out a crucial earlier moment. Writing for The Daily Mail, Seward revealed new details about the couple’s relationship timeline. “What no one knew back then — but I can exclusively reveal now — is that the couple had already been on a date,” Seward wrote.

William and Kate first met in the fall of 2001 as first-year students at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where both were initially studying art history. William would later switch to geography, while Kate went on to graduate with her art history degree. According to Seward, the pivotal early date took place during the Christmas holidays that year, when William made a lengthy drive to see Kate. “William had driven for more than an hour to pick up Catherine from her parents’ home in Bucklebury, Berkshire, then take her for a drink at a nearby pub, the Old Boot Inn at Stanford Dingley,” Seward wrote. “In the snug surroundings of a country pub with dark wood furnishings and a fire going, there was a crucial shift in their fledgling relationship.”

That evening, according to Seward’s account, Kate helped William work through a personal dilemma. William had grown bored with the art history coursework but felt trapped by his own reluctance to quit. “But he felt he couldn’t quit, for fear of being branded a loser,” Seward wrote, adding that it was during this date that Kate suggested he consider switching majors, and the two worked through the possible alternatives together.

Seward suggested the moment carried significance beyond simple academic advice, offering William something he rarely encountered in his social circle. “Surrounded as he was by people who almost always said ‘yes,’ it was difficult for William in those days to form concrete opinions, but here was someone genuinely interested in his dilemma, coming up with a solution,” Seward wrote. “She might be a good-looking young woman, but Catherine Middleton was also someone with a wise head whom he could consult on an equal footing.”

William returned to St. Andrews in January and formally switched his course of study from art history to geography. Two months later came the now-famous fashion show, where Kate’s runway appearance would go on to become one of the most widely circulated images of the decade. Seward argued the fashion show’s cultural impact has somewhat overshadowed what had already developed between the couple by that point. “But while she might have looked stunning, she already had more than a lovelorn William’s admiration — she also had his trust,” Seward wrote.

By the fall of 2002, Queen Elizabeth II made what Seward described as a striking decision at the time, permitting William and Kate to live together as roommates even though the pair were already romantically involved, alongside two additional roommates, Fergus Boyd and Olivia Bleasdale, whose presence helped keep the developing relationship out of public view. That arrangement played a significant role in allowing William and Kate to keep their relationship private until it was first publicly confirmed in April 2004, more than two years after it began.

Seward drew a direct contrast between William’s approach to courtship and that of his parents, Charles and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, who married in July 1981 after having spent time together on only about 13 occasions before their wedding. “Catherine and William were seeing each other that many times in a week” during their college years, Seward wrote. She also noted how dramatically social expectations had shifted in the decades between the two royal courtships, writing that three decades earlier, an unmarried couple living together “would have killed Catherine’s chances of marrying William stone dead.” According to Seward, Queen Elizabeth’s willingness to depart from that earlier tradition gave William room “to develop a profound and lasting relationship at his own pace.”

The now-iconic fashion show garment itself has its own story. The outfit was designed by Kate’s St. Andrews classmate Charlotte Todd, who said the assignment behind the look carried an unintentionally fitting theme. “It was called ‘The Art of Seduction,’ which is quite apt, really,” Todd told People. “I didn’t know who Kate Middleton was and I didn’t put her in it. It was just pure chance!” Todd said the garment, originally conceived as a skirt rather than a dress, cost less than $50 to produce. It later sold at auction in 2011, the same year William and Kate married, for $125,000.

Reflecting on her unexpected role in royal history, Todd told People she remains struck by the moment’s significance. “A small part of me will always be part of royal history,” she said. “It’s madness!”

Seward’s account adds new texture to a relationship that has been extensively chronicled since William and Kate’s engagement in 2010 and their 2011 wedding, offering a more grounded counterpoint to the widely repeated fashion-show origin story: not a sudden spark on a runway, but a quiet drive to a country pub months earlier, where a friendship first began shifting into something more.

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