The imposition of safeguard duty, an uptick in exports, and an increase in input cost are driving steel prices higher. The latest round of price increase took place on Friday, with some steel mills increasing hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices by ~500-750 a tonne, according to price reporting and market intelligence firm BigMint. HRC is a benchmark for flat steel.
Retail inflation rose to a three-month high of 1.33 per cent in December 2025 mainly due to higher prices of kitchen essentials, including vegetables and protein-rich items.
'Sebi's move to cap brokerage charges will help investors by lowering the overall cost of investments.'
'Stopping now would defeat the core purpose of an SIP, which is to average out the purchase cost over market cycles.'
The Indian steel industry is faced with a paradox: Rising demand and falling prices. Demand continues to surge as user industries gather pace, with the World Steel Association projecting around 9 per cent annual growth for India over 2025 and 2026, the year domestic demand is projected to be almost 75 million tonnes (mt) higher than in 2020.
Ahead of the key meeting called by the steel ministry with the industry captains on Monday to discuss the impact of rising steel imports, companies have raised the issue of cheaper 'substandard' inflows from China, Vietnam, and South Korea, saying they are setting the benchmark for domestic prices and squeezing the profitability of Indian producers.
The imposition of a 100 per cent tariff by the US on imports of branded and patented pharmaceutical products starting October 1 may not significantly hurt Indian drug makers, with Sun Pharma being exposed to some headline risk but with limited earnings impact, according to analysts. Among Indian companies, only Sun Pharma has sizeable sales from patented drugs in the US (about 17 per cent of 2024-25 revenue), HSBC Global Investment Research said in a report.
To prevent companies from submitting unrealistic quotes to bag project contracts across industries, the government is planning to soon roll out a mechanism to curb irrational bidding.
India's top listed real estate developers - DLF, Lodha Group, Prestige Estates, and Oberoi Realty, excluding Godrej Properties - reported strong presales growth in the first quarter (Q1) of 2025-26 (FY26), even as earnings showed a mixed trend. According to Nomura, the top five developers - DLF, Lodha, Prestige, Oberoi, and Godrej - recorded a cumulative 59 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth in presales.
The repo rate cut by 25 basis points by the monetary policy committee (MPC) of RBI announced Friday will give a long-awaited relief on interest rates and also be supportive of economic growth, according to experts. Repo rate is the interest rate at which the RBI lends money to commercial banks.
Mixed views were expressed by top economists on the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC) decision to hold the repo rate at 5.5% and maintain a neutral stance. While some say the decision was as expected and one more rate reduction is expected this fiscal, there is also a view that rate cut by MPC was warranted given the evolving global situation.
CRISIL Ratings on Thursday placed the long-term bank facilities and debt instruments of Vedanta Limited under 'rating watch with negative implications', the agency said in a press statement. CRISIL said the ratings may also be downgraded if Vedanta is not able to bring down its end-of-year financial leverage to below 2.7 times through asset monetisation, which is to be completed by December this year.
The move is to align affordable housing finance flows to the increase in property costs and inflation, says Raghu Mohan.
Experts say Indian Railways must grow its share in the freight market to remain financially sustainable.
Only a limited set of investors should invest directly in corporate bonds.
Inventories of rare earth magnets used in critical automotive components - particularly electric vehicle (EV) traction motors and power steering systems - could run dry by mid-July this year, according to rating agency Icra.
The Indian IT services sector is staring at a second consecutive year of muted revenue growth due to modest increase in tech spends in Europe and the US, a domestic rating agency said on Wednesday. Crisil Ratings said it expects the sector to grow at 5-7 per cent in FY25, after a growth of 6 per cent estimated to have been achieved in FY24. The overall industry size is pegged at $250 billion and it creates over 50 lakh direct jobs.
Domestic steel prices have seen an increase over the past couple of months in anticipation of a safeguard duty, but a looming global trade war is likely to weigh as threat of import rises and prospect of export flounders. Data from BigMint showed that in March 2025, hot rolled coil (HRC) prices ex-Mumbai increased by Rs 600 per tonne month-on-month (M-o-M), rising from Rs 48,400 per tonne in February to Rs 49,000 per tonne.
'The central bank has highlighted that the slowdown in growth has been limited to a few sectors and overall growth is expected to pick up in the second half of the year.'
Private participation remains lacklustre.
Only borrow an amount that can be repaid comfortably. The ratio of total EMI to take-home salary should not exceed 40 per cent.
Mining conglomerate Vedanta Limited has received approvals from the majority of its creditors for a proposed demerger of businesses, marking an important step in the company's plan to split into six independent listed companies. "I am happy to let all of you know that we have received the 52 per cent plus the additional percentage, which is required for us to reach 75 per cent. "We have crossed that threshold as well. Most of the lenders have approved it," a senior Vedanta executive said in a recent bondholder conference call.
Rating agency Crisil said corporates, especially those in the auto, aviation, consumer durables and oil sectors, will be "severely impacted" by rupee depreciation due to large overseas debt and limited hedging.
Preparing a 'vegetarian thali' got dearer by 34 per cent in July as compared to June because of the soaring tomato prices, an arm of a rating agency said in a report on Monday. A non-vegetarian thali was relatively less impacted and the price of preparing one went up by only 13 per cent, Crisil's 'Roti Rice Rate' report for August said. The inflation in the thalis is largely driven by the 233 per cent jump in tomato prices to Rs 110 per kilogramme in July from Rs 33 in June, the report said.
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The agency also warned the government of overshooting the fiscal deficit target at 4.8 per cent due to poor revenue growth and pegged it at 5.2 per cent this fiscal.
Megha Engineering and Infrastructure, the little-known Hyderabad-based firm that in recent years won the prestigious Zojila tunnel deal among other projects, forayed into city gas and acquired a media group, was the second largest donor to political parties using electoral bonds.
During 2023, the Indian real estate sector - both housing and commercial - witnessed buoyancy fuelled by demand, supply, and absorption, and the sector is banking on the upcoming Budget to keep the momentum going. Mumbai-based Sattva Group wants the government to focus on the critical pillars for long-term growth. The company emphasised on the infrastructure boom with increased allocation, lower goods and services tax (GST) rates, incentives for affordable housing and single-window clearance to fast-track projects and support liquidity.
Adani Power, part of the Adani group, plans to add close to 6 gigawatts (Gw) of new power assets in the next five years, according to an investor presentation by the company. That is clearly meant to ride on India's burgeoning power demand. But there is another side to it: All of this new capacity is expected to be thermal power, or power produced from coal.
Any government support or incentive to help exporters deal with high freight and insurance costs is unlikely.
Brent crude oil price surged 4 per cent on Friday, following tension between Iran and the US. Airlines, however, have been unable to pass on the price increase to customers due to the soft demand.
After nearly four years of underwhelming performances in equity schemes, Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund (ABSL MF) is experiencing a revival. During the first quarter of the 2023-24 financial year (Q1FY24), the fund house arrested its declining market share, bolstered by stronger equity fund results and subsequent ratings upgrades. Mahesh Patil, the chief investment officer, attributes this resurgence to changes in the fund management team and adjustments to investment strategies.
Tyre stocks have been on a tear over the past six months, with average returns exceeding 45 per cent. Except for Apollo Tyres, which has seen a slight correction in the last month and a half, limiting its gains to 16 per cent, listed peers such as MRF, CEAT Tyres (formerly Cavi Elettrici e Affini Torino), and JK Tyre & Industries have delivered returns exceeding 30 per cent during this period. Production-related constraints and sluggish demand in Europe, where sales are expected to remain flat, coupled with high valuations, have contributed to Apollo Tyres' underperformance. The tyre sector's gains can be attributed to robust growth trends driven by the replacement market, which constitutes more than two-thirds of sales.
'Interim Budget has ignited the entrepreneurial spirit.'
Vedanta Limited (Vedanta) helping its parent and group holding company Vedanta Resources to deleverage its balance sheet has started to strain its balance sheet. Vedanta's gross debt (consolidated) was up 24.3 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in FY23 and reached a six-year high of Rs 66,628 crore by the end of March. Similarly, its net debt went up 20.3 per cent YoY to Rs 45,706 crore at the end of FY23, up from Rs 38,228 crore a year ago; it was the highest since FY20.
On June 30, mining and metals giant Vedanta, announced that it had decided to initiate a strategic review of its steel and steel-making raw material businesses. The review would begin immediately and evaluate a broad range of options, including but not limited to a potential strategic sale of some or all of the steel businesses, the company said in its stock exchange filing. The signs have been there - approaches had been made to steel players over the past year. Last December, Anil Agarwal, chairman Vedanta group, told Business Standard that the steel plant capacity was about 3 million tonnes (mt).
Vedanta group chairman, Anil Agarwal, 69, is well known for his business journey from a scrap dealer from Bihar to a London-based globe-girdling metal and oil and gas conglomerate with revenues of $19 billion. Now his abilities to keep his group from over-leveraging itself will be put to the test. Over the years, Agarwal, now based in London, set up the conglomerate via acquiring iron ore producer Sesa Goa, Cairn's oil producing assets in India, and Electrosteel Steel.
Less-than-expected rainfall and a poor spatial distribution, experts say, can rekindle fears of a rise in food and fuel inflation that can have an impact on the RBI's monetary policy. The fear of less than optimal rainfall due to El Nino this year, analysts believe, is the biggest short-term risk for the markets, which they said has not been fully priced in yet by them. Monsoon set over Kerala on June 08, a week later than its scheduled date.
Shares of companies having investments of late billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala ended on a mixed note on Tuesday. The 62-year-old investor, who was known as the Big Bull and Warren Buffett of India for his investment acumen, passed away on Sunday. Jhunjhunwala had investments in more than three dozen companies, the most valuable being watch and jewellery maker Titan, part of the Tata group. Titan ended 0.88 pe cent higher at Rs 2,493.65.
However, a prolonged and intense second wave that curtails oxygen supply to industries for a longer-than-expected period will exacerbate downside risk in affected sectors
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