Daily Market News Update — (22nd-23rd June 2026)

Midnight News Update: 22-23 Jun 2026

Core sector growth for May 2026 fell to a 7-month low of 0.5% with contraction in most of the energy related sectors. This is sharply lower than 1.8% recorded in April 2026. While steel, cement, and electricity remained resilient; pressure was seen across the energy sector. Coal output fell by -9.3%, Crude oil output contracted -4.6%, and natural gas output contracted -4.9% in May 2026. Refining, which has a weightage of over 28% in the core sector basket, also contracted sharply by -8.7%. Cement and electricity expanded over 8%, while steel grew over 5%.

The monsoon deficit this current season widened to 42%, as farmers are delaying Kharif sowing and exploring a shift to short duration crops like soybeans. The delayed Kharif sowing is likely to impact crop yields and the Kharif output, impacting food inflation in a big way. Maharashtra, a key crop growing region, has seen rainfall deficit of 82% this year. Other regions to see deep deficits of over 60% include Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. The Marathwada region is an epicentre of pulses production. Some states like Rajasthan, West Bengal, and Andhra have got surplus rains.

As competition intensifies in the Indian quick commerce space, Amazon India has adopted a unique farm to fork strategy. Its bet is that the real battle will be won as much in the farm, as in the dark stores. Its farm to fork supply chain will link farmers directly with its grocery and quick commerce operations. The idea is to retain freshness and also reduce wastage in the process. This is being done simultaneously with expanding its quick commerce vertical, Amazon Now. By end of 2026, Amazon plans to expand direct procurement from farmers six-fold from current levels.

India’s Russian oil imports touched a record high in May 2026, as it accounted for more than 50% of India’s overall oil imports. With Middle East supplies and Russia offering generous discounts, it continued to be the mainstay of India’s crude procurement. In June so far, India has imported about 2.6 million bpd of oil from Russia, accounting for 53.5% of total oil imported by India. The general expectation is that India may continue to buy Russian oil, irrespective of whether the US offers waiver or not. Middle East oil production has also been seriously disrupted.

Meta will invest a princely sum of $900 million, into CRED, the Indian fintech platform. That roughly translates into rupee funding of ₹8,550 crore in this round. The funding round values CRED at roughly $4.5 billion. As part of the deal, the founder of CRED, Kunal Shah, will step away from his operating role at CRED. Instead, Kunal Shah will move to Meta’s global leadership team, even as he will retain his personal stake holding in CRED. In India, CRED has been another one of the fintech players that has successfully leveraged technology to deliver financial solutions.

Banks have sought clarity from the RBI on leveraged FCNR(B) structures. The question is whether overseas branches of large banks like SBI, BOB, ICICI Bank, and HDFC Bank will be permitted to lend to non-resident Indians to invest the money in FCNR(B) deposits. If the NRIs borrow and invest, they can still make a clean spread over the cost of funds, especially since the full forex currency risk is borne by the RBI in this case. The FCNR(B) window with forex risk covered by RBI, will be available till end of September 2026. Leverage risks will be a key issue here.

Indian electrical equipment companies have been seeing a silent and quick rally in recent months. In fact, several power equipment companies have rallied by nearly 45% in a month and touched their 52-week highs. This also led the capital goods index to touch a yearly high. The list includes some of the marquee names like Kirloskar Oil Engines, Polycab, AIA Engineering, CG Power & Industrial, and Timken India. Power equipment sector is expected to see a domestic shortfall of nearly $130 billion over the next 5 years, opening up a huge opportunity window.

The highly celebrated former governor of the US Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, passed away at the age of 100. He was chairman of the Fed for 19 years from 1987 to 2006. During his tenure, the US is supposed to have seen a long period of stability and growth. However, that may not give the full picture. Alan Greenspan was also responsible for relaxing controls in the financial sector, which eventually resulted in the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2008, less than 2 years after his exit. He was right about productivity gains, but wrong about giving too much freedom.