Asian stocks rose in early trading as the region’s heavyweight technology shares tracked US peers higher on optimism around Meta Platforms Inc.’s new artificial intelligence agent.

MSCI Inc.’s gauge of Asian shares climbed 0.5%, with memory chipmakers Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. the top contributors to gains. South Korea’s benchmark Kospi Index jumped more than 2%. Contracts for US benchmarks edged higher after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 posted their best days since early August.

An index of US semiconductor stocks rallied over 4% on Monday as early signs of success for Meta’s AI agent revived enthusiasm for the sector. Meta surged 11%, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. topped $1 trillion in market value and the Nasdaq 100 jumped 2.8%.

Read more: US stocks: US market ends sharply higher as AI optimism reignites and Treasury yields retreat

Brent oil was steady around $100 a barrel after closing 3.4% lower on Monday as Middle East supply concerns eased and traders tracked an apparent uptick in efforts to end the US-Iran war.

“The most meaningful catalyst appears to be the release of Meta’s new AI chatbot, which has been met with strong demand and resurfaced optimism about the growth outlook for the so-called AI trade,” said Kyle Rodda, a senior analyst at Capital.com. “Signs of strong AI demand should improve sentiment throughout the AI ecosystem, especially chips, which ought to filter through to pockets of the Asian tech sector.”
Investors are also gearing up for this week’s summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, with officials offering upbeat assessments ahead of talks expected to cover AI, trade and investment.US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described weekend meetings with China’s top trade negotiator Li Chenggang as “very successful.”

“All eyes will be on the Trump-Xi meeting in Washington on Thursday, with trade, AI and geopolitics seen dominating the agenda,” Roman Ziruk, lead FX strategist at Ebury, wrote in a note. “Given increasing geopolitical uncertainty worldwide, keeping the world’s two dominant economies on speaking terms has rarely mattered more.”

Developments in the Middle East remained firmly in focus as traders assessed whether diplomacy and increased Saudi exports could extend oil’s retreat. Satellite data showed Saudi Arabia’s observed oil loadings from inside the Persian Gulf jumped over the weekend, with the highest number of ships seen at the nation’s main Persian Gulf port since June.

Trump told Fox News he would “probably” be open to meeting his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York this week. His administration has also proposed investing $5 billion in a new fund to help Middle East countries rebuild energy infrastructure damaged in the Iran war, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee warned that the central bank cannot ignore repeated and persistent supply shocks and may need to respond even at the cost of economic hardship.

“Supply shocks have come more frequently, hit harder and lasted longer,” Goolsbee said Monday at an event in London. “And once supply shocks to inflation become persistent, some of the logic behind ‘looking through’ no longer holds.”

​SYDNEY, Australia — Sydney Fintech OpenDebt Raises Seed Round Debt Recovery platform expansion plans after securing $2 million in seed funding to deploy autonomous artificial intelligence voice agents across Australia’s $1.5 billion debt recovery sector.

​The seed financing round was led by prominent Australian early-stage venture capital firms and angel investors specializing in financial technology and enterprise automation. OpenDebt’s platform combines natural language processing, real-time sentiment analysis, and strict regulatory compliance architecture to automate early-stage debt recovery conversations for commercial lenders, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) providers, utilities, and specialized collection agencies. By replacing rigid interactive voice response (IVR) menus and high-turnover human call centers with conversational AI, the Sydney-based startup aims to drastically cut operational recovery costs while improving contact rates and consumer payment outcomes.

​Industry analysts note that bringing generative voice AI into debt collection addresses severe labor shortages and escalating compliance burdens across Australia’s credit ecosystem.

​Addressing Escalating Delinquencies and High Call Center Costs

​The deployment of autonomous voice agents comes as Australian lenders navigate elevated consumer credit stress and rising loan delinquencies.

​Traditional collections operations rely heavily on manual outbound call centers, where human agents face high burnout rates, high turnover, and steep training costs. Furthermore, strict regulatory constraints enforced by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) limit contact frequency and prescribe exact disclosure requirements, making manual compliance monitoring complex and costly. OpenDebt’s platform automates high-volume outbound reminders and inbound balance inquiries, allowing human collection teams to divert their focus toward complex disputes and high-value hardship cases.

​Automating repetitive customer outreach helps financial institutions reduce cost-to-collect ratios while maintaining consistent contact schedules.

• ​Autonomous Call Management: AI agents place outbound reminders, verify consumer identity, and negotiate structured payment plans without human intervention.

• ​Real-Time Compliance Rails: Built-in guardrails ensure strict adherence to ASIC and ACCC collection guidelines, preventing prohibited language and illegal call timing.

• ​Dynamic Sentiment Tracking: Natural language processing models detect consumer distress or hesitation, adjusting conversational tone or transferring calls to human agents.

• ​Seamless System Syncing: Integrates directly into enterprise core banking systems, CRMs, and payment gateways to log outcomes instantly.

​Modernizing debt outreach infrastructure gives credit providers a scalable operational buffer against economic volatility.

​Proprietary Conversational Architecture and Empathy-Driven AI

​OpenDebt’s core product differentiator centers on its proprietary voice engine designed specifically for complex financial conversations.

​Unlike standard off-the-shelf voice bots that rely on rigid decision trees, OpenDebt’s conversational AI interprets contextual nuance, colloquialisms, and speech pauses. During an interaction, the AI agent identifies the account holder, outlines outstanding obligations clearly, and evaluates repayment capabilities in real time. If a customer expresses financial strain, the AI agent dynamically offers tailored installment plans or hardship relief options pre-approved by the creditor. If the conversation crosses predetermined friction parameters, the platform executes a smooth handoff to a specialized human case manager alongside a complete call transcript and sentiment summary.

​Combining natural conversational flow with empathetic negotiation mechanics drives higher resolution rates compared to legacy text or email notices.

​Empathy-driven AI architecture helps financial brands preserve long-term customer relationships during difficult credit recovery cycles.

​Navigating Australia’s $1.5 Billion Recovery Market and Regulatory Oversight

​The commercial expansion targets a sizable Australian market undergoing rapid digital modernization.

​Australia’s debt collection industry processes over $1.5 billion in annual recovery revenue, serving major retail banks, non-bank lenders, telecom providers, and municipal utilities. However, heightened scrutiny from the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has forced credit providers to demand full auditability over all customer interactions. OpenDebt addresses these regulatory requirements by generating real-time text transcripts, sentiment heatmaps, and compliance certificates for every completed call, giving internal risk officers complete visibility into collection activities.

​Providing complete interaction transparency enables financial institutions to adopt automated voice technology without expanding legal exposure.

​Stringent regulatory compliance frameworks remain a core competitive requirement for technology vendors entering the Australian financial sector.

​Growth Roadmap and Commercial Scaling Strategy

​OpenDebt plans to utilize the $2 million seed injection to expand its Sydney-based engineering team and accelerate enterprise deployments.

​The capital will fund advanced development of localized Australian accent models, expanded CRM integrations, and automated digital payment settlement features. The company is executing early commercial pilots with mid-tier Australian fintech lenders and credit unions, with broader enterprise rollouts scheduled across commercial utility providers and third-party recovery agencies over the coming quarters. Looking further ahead, OpenDebt’s executive leadership aims to leverage its localized technology stack to expand into neighboring regional markets, including New Zealand and Southeast Asia.

​The successful deployment of autonomous voice AI signals a major technological shift across Australia’s credit management landscape.

​Continued innovation in compliant conversational AI promises to redefine operational benchmarks for enterprise debt collection.

A severed fiber-optic cable in New Jersey disrupted air travel across parts of the Northeast on Monday, showing how a single infrastructure problem can quickly ripple through the nation’s airline system.

Rich Davis, senior security advisor at International SOS and former chief security officer at United Airlines, told FOX Business that even a localized outage can quickly disrupt flights far beyond where it begins because airline networks are tightly interconnected.

“It’s like a spider web of activity that’s happening and everybody is impacted, especially connecting passengers versus nonstop,” Davis said. “… Something that is only happening in that Northeast corridor, it still impacts all of the connecting hubs.”

Passengers with connecting itineraries often feel the biggest impact because disruptions at one major hub can quickly spread throughout the airline network, Davis said.

FAA GROUNDS FLIGHTS AT MAJOR NORTHEAST AIRPORTS AFTER FIBER LINE CUT

The disruption began around 9:45 a.m. after a fiber-optic line in New Jersey was accidentally cut, causing a telecommunications outage and prompting ground stops at major airports in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia, according to Reuters.

By Monday evening, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the telecommunications lines had been repaired and airport operations across the Northeast were resuming, though travelers should continue to expect delays.

The outage contributed to roughly 7,000 flight delays and cancellations, including about 1,400 at New York City’s three major airports, Reuters reported, citing FlightAware.

Davis said airlines classify events like Monday’s outage as “irregular operations” — unexpected disruptions such as severe weather or equipment failures that can quickly throw carefully coordinated flight schedules off balance.

MAJOR AIRLINES CUT FLIGHTS AS HIGHER JET FUEL PRICES HIT CARRIERS

Even after the original problem is fixed, airlines must reposition aircraft, pilots, flight attendants and passengers throughout their networks, creating a cascade of additional delays.

“There’s always a downhill trickle of subsequent delays, diversions, cancelations,” Davis said. “It’s basically a fact of life.”

Even so, Davis noted that airlines and airports have extensive experience managing these disruptions.

“Having said all of that, the airlines and the airports are so experienced in handling irregular operations, they do their best within their controls to minimize the effect on passengers,” Davis said.

Despite the widespread disruptions, Davis stressed that airlines never compromise safety in an effort to restore schedules.

AVELO CEO WARNS AIRFARES MAY RISE AS FUEL PRICES HIT ‘UNCOMFORTABLY HIGH’ LEVELS

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

“The number one priority every time, all of the time, is the safety of the passengers and the airline employees themselves,” he said. “That’s [the] number one priority. No shortcuts, no risks — follow the playbooks. Safety is more important than anything.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

ET Intelligence Group: Varmora Granito, a tiles manufacturer, plans to raise ₹320 crore through a fresh issue towards capital expenditure and repayment of borrowings. It will also raise ₹388 crore through an offer for sale. The promoter group’s stake will fall to 47% after the IPO from 52%. The company manufactures ceramic and vitrified tiles. About 74% of the revenue is derived from glazed vitrified tiles and technical products. One-fifth of the revenue comes from international markets. The Middle East conflict disrupted the company’s export operations due to vessel shortages, potentially affecting overseas sales and increasing logistics-related risks.

Also, the tiles business is energy intensive and uses natural gas and propane. Their availability and cost will be impacted by geopolitical tensions. Further, the company’s production facilities are concentrated in Morbi, Gujarat, thereby increasing geographic concentration risks. Given these factors, investors may wait and watch for greater clarity after listing.

Business

Incorporated in 2003, Varmora Granito operates eight manufacturing facilities in Gujarat. It has a distribution network of 305 exclusive brand outlets and 2,758 multi-brand outlets across India and overseas, along with B2B sales to builders, contractors, developers and government entities. Nearly 82% of the revenue comes from products manufactured in-house and rest comes from third party contract manufacturers. Two-thirds of domestic revenue comes from the B2C retail channel and the remaining is from the B2B channel.

Read more: Landmark NSE IPO threatens to hollow out Dalal Street’s shadow market

Financials

Revenue from operations increased 2.6% annually to ₹1,512.5 crore and net profit grew 10.7% annually to ₹55.1 crore. Operating profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) rose 21.4% to ₹221.6 crore while Ebitda margin improved to 14.2% from 10.2% during the period. Cash flow from operations declined from ₹88.3 crore in FY24 to ₹63.2 crore in FY25, before rebounding sharply to ₹234.1 crore in FY26. Return on capital employed increased to 9.9% in FY26 from 7.9% in FY24 and return on equity grew marginally to 6.8% in FY26 from 6.4% in FY24. Net debt declined to ₹2,434.3 crore in FY26 from ₹3,145.7 crore in FY24.
Read more: Ahead of Market: 10 things that will decide stock market action on Tuesday

Valuation

Based on the post-IPO equity and FY26 net profit, the company demands a price-earnings (P/E) multiple of 61. It appears to be on the higher side compared with a P/E of 39 for Kajaria Ceramics, the largest listed tiles company in India which also has higher Ebitda margin at around 18%. Given this and risks arising due to geopolitical risks, investors may wait and watch the developments in the short term.

New Delhi: Varmora Granito on Monday raised ₹212.4 crore from anchor investors, including Goldman Sachs and ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, a day ahead of the opening of its ₹708-crore IPO.

Read more: Landmark NSE IPO threatens to hollow out Dalal Street’s shadow market

The company allotted 1.43 crore equity shares to 17 funds at ₹148 apiece. Other participants included Bandhan Mutual Fund, India Acorn Fund, Turnaround Opportunities Fund, Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund, JM Financial Mutual Fund, Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company, Societe Generale and BNP Paribas Financial Markets.

Maybank forecasts Vietnam’s GDP growth at 7.8% (2026) and 7.9% (2027), leading ASEAN. Growth driven by AI-related exports, foreign investment, and infrastructure spending. Maybank maintains VN-Index target of 2,000, citing FTSE upgrade, strong EPS growth, and resilient fundamentals despite global uncertainties, per Invest ASEAN 2026 findings.

Key Points

• Maybank forecasts Vietnam’s GDP growth at 7.8% (2026) and 7.9% (2027), making it ASEAN’s fastest-growing economy, driven by electronics exports, FDI, and infrastructure spending.
• Maybank keeps its VN-Index target at 2,000, expecting 13–16% EPS growth in 2026, supported by the FTSE emerging market upgrade and strong sector performance in banking, retail, and energy.
• Other forecasts vary: AMRO cut 2026 GDP to 7.2%, OECD projects 6.5%, while UOB notes resilience despite rising energy costs and external pressures.

Vietnam’s Growth Outlook

Maybank forecasts Vietnam’s GDP growth at 7.8% in 2026 and 7.9% in 2027, positioning it as ASEAN’s fastest-growing major economy. This resilience persists despite global uncertainties.

Growth will be driven by AI-related electronics exports, strong foreign investment inflows, and continued infrastructure spending. The second half of 2026 outlook remains favorable, supported by higher-quality overseas funding, supply chain diversification, major infrastructure projects, and supportive fiscal and monetary policies—reinforcing Vietnam’s structural growth momentum amid a challenging global backdrop.

Earnings and Equity Market Outlook

Second-quarter market earnings are expected to slightly exceed expectations, with banks, retail, and energy sectors outperforming due to lower provisions, stronger electronics prices, and elevated oil prices. Real estate, steel, and air logistics should align with forecasts, while fertilisers and chemicals may underperform due to falling urea prices.

Maybank remains bullish on Vietnamese equities, maintaining a VN-Index target of 2,000, supported by 13–16% EPS growth in 2026. The upcoming FTSE emerging market upgrade in September is seen as a key catalyst, favoring infrastructure, energy, and financial sectors.

Investor Engagement and Comparative Forecasts

The findings were unveiled at Invest ASEAN 2026, hosted by Maybank in Singapore, drawing 200 institutional investors managing $23 trillion in assets. Vietnam had the largest representation, with 14 companies spanning banking, tech, consumer, healthcare, and renewable energy sectors—highlighting strong investor interest in the country’s growth story. Maybank Investment Bank Vietnam’s CEO, Kim Thien Quang, emphasized Vietnam’s resilient economic appeal amid global complexity.

In contrast, other institutions offer more conservative estimates: AMRO revised its 2026 forecast down to 7.2%, the OECD projects 6.5% growth, and UOB notes resilience despite cost pressures from rising energy prices and external headwinds—suggesting cautious optimism across forecasts while affirming Vietnam’s continued economic strength.

Source : Strong fundamentals to keep Vietnam at the top of ASEAN growth rankings

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