Utique Enterprises Ltd Management Discussions

OVERVIEW Global Economy

In 2025, the world economy experienced a broad-based slowdown, with global growth hovering around 2.80% to 3.00%. This period was marked by escalating trade protections, elevated US tariffs, and policy uncertainties that disrupted supply chains, while emerging markets continued to outpace advanced economies in growth rates.

As the Middle East conflict drives sharp energy price increases, global growth is projected to slow to 2.50% in 2026, with emerging markets and developing economies facing the weakest per capita income growth since the COVID-19 pandemic. Risks remain skewed to the downside and include escalating hostilities, further commodity market disruptions, and additional geopolitical strains, while broader AI adoption offers some upside. Global inflation is expected to fall, but the US inflation will return to target more gradually. Key downside risks are re-evaluation of technology expectations and escalation of geopolitical tensions.

Risks are tilted to the downside. Prolonged uncertainty, more protectionism, and labour supply shocks could reduce growth.

Fiscal vulnerabilities, potential financial market corrections, and erosion of institutions could threaten stability.

Global headline inflation rose for a second consecutive month, from 3.70% in January to 4.10% in February and further to 4.30% in March 2026. Following a slight downward path through much of 2024 and 2025, global inflation has edged up in recent months, reflecting renewed price pressures. By the end of the quarter, inflation began to accelerate due to increasing energy and fuel prices driven by heightened war in the Middle East.

In America, annual inflation increased from 3.80% in

February to 4.50% in March. Since December 2025, when annual inflation stood at 3.30%, inflation has strengthened considerably. In Europe, the annual inflation rate increased from 2.90% to 3.40%, with more than 95.00% of the countries recording higher inflation in the latest monthly period. In Africa, the inflation rate increased by a similar magnitude.

The energy price spike is now raising inflation and generating a sharp squeeze on household purchasing power that could intensify if the Middle East conflict continues. The risk of a negative growth shock raising unemployment rates is thus high.

On the other hand, a surge in global goods demand is contributing to concerns. Global factory output accelerated to an annualized rate of 3.60% in the first quarter. In addition, supply bottlenecks in the tech sector as well as rising import and transportation costs, are putting upward pressure on core goods prices, which are forecast to increase by an annualized rate of 2.00% this year, compared with 0.90% during the financial year 2024 2025.

In 2025, the world trade in goods and commercial services, on a balance of payments basis, increased by 7.00% to US$ 34.65 trillion, up from 4.00% growth in the previous year. The goods trade grew by 6.00%, while services expanded at a faster rate of 8.00%. The share of services in global trade reached 27.60%, its highest level since 2005, reflecting the continued resilience and expanding role of services in global trade.

The world trade is set to slow in 2026, following a stronger than expected rise last year. In the baseline scenario, merchandise trade volume growth would drop from 4.60% in 2025 to 1.90% in 2026, before picking up to 2.60% in 2027. The same scenario for services trade volume would see growth easing from 5.30% in 2025 to 4.80% in 2026, then rising to 5.10% in 2027.

The 2026 forecast for merchandise trade growth, while lower than the 2025 result, is still above the previous forecast of 0.50%. The revision was due to upgraded GDP growth projections, the expectation of continued strong growth in AI-related trade, and a smaller than anticipated impact of tariffs. Recent trade policy changes in 2026 mostly involved substitution of legal instruments rather than a substantive change in tariff barriers.

Indian Economy

Indias real GDP grew by 7.70% for the year 2025-2026, up from 7.10% in financial year 2025, maintaining its position as one of the worlds fastest growing major economies.

The recent economic expansion was broad-based, with secondary and services sectors acting as the primary engines of growth. Key sub-sectors like trade, hotels, and transportation registered double digit growth (12.50%), while financial and real estate services grew by 10.40%.

Indias foreign exchange reserves remained robust, providing a cushion against global uncertainties and currency volatility. The reserves increased to 701.4 billion $US, up from 668 billion $US as of the end of March 2025. However, the Rupee has depreciated sharply against the $US, with the Rupee-Dollar Exchange Rate rising from around Rs.85 per dollar in 2025 to beyond Rs.96 per dollar in 2026. The Indian Rupee is weakening due to global uncertainty, rising imports, capital outflows, and external sector pressures on the economy.

The Government reinforced a push towards infrastructure driven economic growth, setting a constructive backdrop for Indias real estate sector. Its sharp focus on infrastructure, manufacturing, urban development and tourism is expected to create strong indirect momentum across residential, commercial, industrial and hospitality real estate segments.

Despite growth, inflation proved to be a significant concern. Reserve Bank of India revised its inflation forecast upward for financial year 2026-2027, reflecting the sharp uptick in food prices and retail inflation readings amid the ongoing West

Asia crisis.

The World Bank forecasts Indias GDP growth at 6.60% for the financial year 2026-2027, following an estimated 7.00% growth in the previous year. Despite a projected moderation due to higher global energy costs, India is expected to comfortably remain the worlds fastest growing major economy.

for the financial year 2026-2027 at 6.60%. This is a downward revision from the previous projection of 6.90%, driven by concerns over elevated energy prices, ongoing geopolitical conflicts in West Asia, and weather-related uncertainties.

INDUSTRY STRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENTS

Global mined silver supply increased by 3.00% y/y to 846.6Moz (26,331t). Combined with recycling and others, the total supply was 1,030.6 Moz against the demand of 1,130.3 Moz.

Demand, by contrast, fell by 2.00% to 1,130.6 Moz (35,166t), the lowest since 2021 as a contraction in PV demand and thrifting elsewhere outweighed gains linked to AI-related data centers, high-speed transmission hardware, EV penetration and charging infrastructure.

Despite fall in demand, the silver market is forecast to record another significant deficit (total supply less demand) for the sixth consecutive year in 2026. In keeping with previous years, silver industrial demand will remain the key driver of this favourable supply/demand backdrop, with volumes projected to hit a new record high this year.

Global silver prices gained close to 149.00% and this performance significantly outpaced gold, copper, and most base metals. The rally reflected silvers dual nature as both a precious metal and an industrial commodity. The surge in silver prices during 2025 was driven by multiple factors reinforcing each other, namely weakness in the $US, elevated geopolitical tensions, tariff uncertainty and strong investment demand.

Gold prices posted continuous gains to kick off 2026, peaking in late January before cooling off in late March. Trade concerns, geopolitical crises and central bank buying and selling have contributed to golds volatile spot price.

Indias gold demand is likely to be anchored by investment interest, supported by price momentum, geopolitical risks, and subdued domestic financial markets. However, a rise in external risks and a potentially below-normal monsoon could inflationary weigh growth and incomes, while pressures, partly driven by Middle East tensions, may dampen consumption, especially in price-sensitive segments. Amid these headwinds, investment demand is likely to remain firm, while jewellery demand may continue to face pressure, reinforcing the investment-led trend.

OPPORTUNITIES AND THREAT

Trading in commodities and derivatives are subject to inherent risks such as credit risk, margin risk, volatility in prices of commodities and currencies, political risk, leverage risk, operational risk such as high transaction costs, regulatory changes, interest rate risk, warehousing and storage cost, etc.

Your Company Management believes that in any market the biggest risk is not having complete understanding of the business. Therefore, your Company Management adopts focus-based approaches in trading in order to reduce the risk and create a substantial value creation for its stakeholders. The underlying drivers that supported silver throughout much of 2025 have remained firmly in place so far this year.

These include tight physical supply in London, a volatile geopolitical backdrop, US policy uncertainty, and concerns over the Federal Reserves independence. In addition, silvers underlying supply-demand fundamentals remain supportive. The expansion of data centers, AI-related technologies, and the automotive sector are expected to support silver consumption across a range of industrial end-uses, partially offsetting the decline in PV-related demand.

Silver physical investment is forecast to rise by 20.00% to a three-year high of 227 Moz. After three consecutive years of decline, Western physical investment is expected to recover in 2026, as silvers exceptional price performance and ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty rekindle investor interest. Investment demand in India is also likely to build on last years substantial gains amid positive investor sentiment. The underlying drivers that supported gold in 2025 are Middle fluctuations East tensions, hedging against price and global uncertainties, high interest rates, etc.

The central banks are actively shifting from USD-denominated reserves to gold to ensure monetary sovereignty and hedge against potential geopolitical sanctions.

Large-scale investors have moved gold from a "speculative trade" category to a mandatory risk-management tool, treating it as an insurance policy against global instability. The Government of Indias import duty hike (from 6.00% to 15.00%) has structurally raised the "landed cost" of bullion, establishing a new, higher price floor for the domestic market.

SEGMENT-WISE/PRODUCT-WISE PERFORMANCE

As at present, your Company has silver, gold and copper segment/product-wise classification.

Your Company Management is optimistic on the outlook of trading in precious metals on account of improved regulatory framework, better integration of markets, developing market infrastructures and warehousing facilities.

The strategy to be implemented will focus on delivering value to its shareholders and at the same time, control inherent risks in order to ensure sustainable development of the Company and protect the interests of its stakeholders.

RISKS AND CONCERNS

Risk is an integral part of the business and we aim at delivering superior shareholder value by achieving an appropriate balance between risks and returns. Commodity Trading is subject to continuously evolving market dynamics, regulatory environment due to increasing globalization, integration of world markets, newer and more complex derivative products and transactions and an increasingly stringent regulatory framework.

The Company Management identifies and monitors the risks on an ongoing basis and evolves processes/systems to monitor and control the same to contain the risks to minimum levels. Ongoing monitoring by our officials help in identifying risks early.

Further, your Company deals only with fixed contracts on physical delivery basis and also hedge the price fluctuation linked to these contracts.

INTERNAL CONTROL SYSTEMS AND THEIR ADEQUACY

Your Company has a robust system of accounting and administrative controls ably supported by an Internal Audit System with internal checks and controls to ensure safety and proper recording of all assets of the Company.

The internal audit plan is aligned with critical business risks and also involves reviewing and documenting key process risks. The scope and coverage of audits include ensuring operating guidelines, and the reliability of financial and operational information and adherence to statutory compliances.

The Internal Auditors of the Company review all the control measures on a quarterly basis and recommend improvements, wherever deemed appropriate, and reports to the Company Management.

The Audit Committee regularly reviews the audit findings. Based on its recommendations, the Company has implemented a number of control measures in both operational and accounting related areas, apart from the usual security related measures.

The internal controls are designed to ensure that the financial and other records are reliable for preparing financial statements and other data and for maintaining the accountability of the assets.

Internal Control and Audit is an important procedure and the Audit Committee of the Company has been empowered by the

Board of Directors to review the adequacy of internal financial controls.

DISCUSSION ON FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE WITH RESPECT TO OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE

During the financial year 2025-2026, your Company continued to follow a focus-based approach in trading and focused on select precious metals commodities such as Silver.

The key financial indicators stood as follows for the financial years 2024-2025 and 2025-2026:-

Sr. No. Particulars	2025-2026	2024-2025
1. Debtors Turnover (in days)	N.A.	N.A.
2. Inventory Turnover	5.46	5.50
3. Interest Coverage Ratio	N.A.	N.A.
4. Current Ratio	69.47	103.10
5. Net Debt to Equity Ratio	N.A.	N.A.
6. Net Profit Margin	3.21	0.48
7. Net-worth (Rs. lac)	7192.18	6994.06
8. Return on Net-worth	0.002	0.007

There are silver and gold trading operations in the Company. There are no significant changes in Trading this year as compared to previous year. The Company has a comfortable Current Ratio and operating margin. There are no debts or debtors for the Company.

HUMAN RESOURCES

Your Company firmly reiterates its trust that our employees are the key assets of the organization. Our Human Resource

Department continuously focuses on employee engagement and motivation, which further helps in achieving strategic objective of the organization.

Your Company continuously strives to provide its employees with competitive compensation packages. During the year under review, we maintained a very cordial relationship with all the employees. As at March 31, 2026, your Company had 5 (five) permanent employees on its rolls.