Announcement Icon Announcement: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec et quam blandit odio sodales pharetra.

Weekly Update Market Wrap

Inflation Reset, Gold Mania & FPI Comeback – What Really Moved Markets This Week?

India unveiled a new CPI base year, FPIs turned buyers, Gold ETFs saw record inflows, US inflation cooled, AI fears hit IT stocks, and oil geopolitics reshaped crude flows. Here’s a structured, India-first breakdown of what truly mattered in markets during Feb 09–13 and what investors should watch next.

6 min read   |   14-Feb-2026   |   Last Updated: 16 Feb 2026
Author Image

Written by: SERNET Research Team

Blog Image
Table of Content

Weekly Capsule (Feb 09 – Feb 13) and Impact Analysis 

        News Announcement           Impact Analysis 
   
  • India CPI inflation came in sharply higher at 2.75% for January 2026 
  • It must be noted that this was the first new-series inflation with the base year changed from 2012 to 2024 
  • New series also reduced the weight of food in the CPI basket by 911 basis points in line with household spending trend 

 

  • Core inflation also tapered from around 4.15% to closer to 3.64% in Jan-26 
  • While, the change in base year was one reason for lower core inflation, it was also an outcome of lower weight for gold 
  • It also meant that food inflation in Jan-26 at 2.13% was back into the positive after 7 months of being in the negative zone 

 

  • FPIs have tuned net buyers to the tune of $2.3 billion in first 11 days of Feb-26 
  • The FPI interest in the markets was driven by a progressive budget and the Indo-US trade deal framework being finalized 
  • This comes as a welcome relief after FPIs were net sellers of $3.95 billion in Jan-26, on top of $18.8 billion sold in 2025 

 

  • Government creates special window to bring FDI up to 20% in case of LIC 
  • LIC must hike its free float capital from current 3.5% to 10% by May 2027, as per SEBI stipulations; with LIC as a special case 
  • The idea here is that 20% FDI in LIC will allow big global hands to also participate in the equity stake sale by LIC of India 

 

  • India asks oil refiners to source more crude from the US and Venezuela  
  • While this is part of the Indo-US trade deal, the cost of crude will also matter, as well as the logistics of moving the crude 
  • Russia accounted for 35-40% of Indian crude basket, and both have invested in the Chennai-Vladivostok maritime corridor 

 

  • US unemployment rate comes in lower than expected at 4.3% from 4.4% 
  • Apart from unemployment being 10 bps lower, non-farm payrolls increased by 1,30,000; twice better than estimated 
  • The stable jobs scenario; combined with solid GDP growth and high PCE inflation almost makes Fed rate cuts unnecessary 

 

  • Gold ETF inflows at ₹24,040 crore, edged past entire active equity flows 
  • This euphoria led to the passive funds contributing more than ₹39,900 crore in inflows in the month of January 2026 
  • With silver flows also strong at above ₹9,400 crore, one must not ignore risks of exposure to precious metals at high levels 

 

  • Both IPOs for the week, struggled to get subscriptions across categories 
  • Fractal Analytics was subscribed over 4 times, with some late support coming from the qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) 
  • Aye Finance got subscribed just 97% at close, with the QIB portion at 1.5X; but HNI/NII and retail was undersubscribed 

 

  • There were some positive takeaways on the SIP flows for January 2026 
  • Gross SIP flows at ₹31,002 crore in January 2026 was exactly at the same level as the SIP flows seen in December 2025 
  • However, the SIP stoppage ratio fell to 74.4%, while the ratio of contributing SIPs to total SIP folios was at a robust 96.4% 

 

  • RBI plans to allow banks to give loans to REITs effective from July 2026 
  • The total loan value will be capped at 49% of the asset value of the trust and will only be offered to listed REITs in India 
  • Currently, banks can lend to INVITs, but not to REITs, so this inclusion will remove that anomaly and help access funds 

 

  • Airtel leads Jio in terms of subscriber additions in month of December 2025 
  • While Bharti Airtel added 54.3 lakh net users for the month, Jio added only 29.6 lakh users; as per data put out by TRAI 
  • Jio still dominates the market with 48.9 crore subscribers, while Bharti Airtel is in second place at 46.3 crore users 

 

  • Government to push OFS in PSUs, where public float is less than 25% 
  • In addition, the government is also looking to list large unlisted names; and it has started off with subsidiaries of CIL 
  • Government ownership is below 60% in 30% of listed CPSEs, and centre needs to maintain 51% holding, so space is limited 

 

  • December 2025 saw a record number of company registrations on the MCA 
  • At 26,631 companies incorporated in December 2025, the number is nearly 112% higher on a yoy basis, which is huge 
  • As per MCA, there are around 30 lakh companies registered, of which only 66.5% of the companies are currently active 

 

  • As VC funds dry up, data centre units look to the IPO market to raise funds 
  • The trend started with SIFY Infinit Spaces, which has got SEBI approval for its ₹3,700 crore IPO, as a pure data centre play 
  • Other data centres in the IPO fray include Nxtra Data, a unit of Airtel, and Yotta Infrastructure, part of Hiranandani group 

 

  • Coal India saw 15.8% fall in net profit in Q3FY26 at ₹7,157 crore on lower sales 
  • Net sales for the quarter also fell by -4.8% to ₹30,818 crore as expenses for the quarter was also up by nearly 5% in Q3FY26 
  • Coal India, which mines 80% of India’s coal output, also saw a sharp fall in volumes compared to the year ago period 

 

  • Passenger vehicle (PV) sales for January 2026 rose by 12.6% to 4,49,616 units   
  • Earlier, the two-wheeler and the three-wheeler space had seen yoy growth of 30% and 26% over January 2025 
  • The GST reduction continues to have an impact, with the gains most visible in the entry level two-wheeler segments 

 

  • KLA Corp, the US chip outfit, will set up a $400 million R&D centre in Chennai 
  • The 12-acre campus in Chennai is envisioned as the global R&D and innovation hub for semiconductor design 
  • It will support advanced research in high performance computing, process control software, and AI-driven innovation 

 

  • As Russian oil flows to India taper, China absorbs surplus oil from Russia 
  • January 2026 Russian oil imports at 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) is the lowest import level achieved since 2022 
  • The average in 2025 was around 1.7 million bpd as Indian export refineries rethink crude sourcing amid tight sanctions 

 

  • AI fears have wiped out ₹4.53 trillion from the market cap of IT companies 
  • That translates into IT market cap losses of $50 billion in just about 10 days of trading in the month of February 2026 
  • Developments at Anthropic and others now threaten to largely wipe out the need for IT outsourcing altogether 

 

  • US CPI inflation fell sharply by 30 bps from 2.7% to 2.4% in January 2026 
  • Price rise was seen in airline fares, personal care products, recreation, medical care, and communication services 
  • Price decrease was seen for used cars & trucks, household furnishings & operations, and motor vehicle insurance 

 

  • Life insurers grew (NBP) new business premiums 22% in Jan-26 on GST boost 
  • This marked the third consecutive month of 20% plus growth in NBP for life insurers after GST on premiums was cut to zero 
  • LIC led the growth while the private sector also played alone, largely led by robust growth in SBI Life Insurance in Jan-26 

 

 

 

 

Comments