Daily Market News Update — 25th-26th May 2026

Midnight News Update: 25-26 May 2026

The Tata Sons board meets on 26-May in an all-important meeting that will discuss a third term for Chandra, listing of Tata Sons, and loss-making businesses of Tata Sons. While veterans like Noshir Soonawala have made a strong case for Tata Sons to remain private, the final decision would depend on the scale-based regulations of RBI. The much bigger issue would be the losses in some of its businesses like digital, semiconductors, and Air India. The biggest debate will be over Air India, which has racked up cumulative losses of over ₹60,000 crore since Tatas took over.

There was good news on the currency front with the rupee showing further strength to ₹95.235/$ at close on Monday. Just last week, the rupee had dipped to a low of ₹96.97/$. Subsequently, the RBI $5 billion swap announcement and direct intervention by selling dollars, hardened the rupee. The big boost on Monday came from Brent Crude dipping below $100/bbl on hopes that the US and Iran should smoke the peace pipe soon. A US-Iran deal also means that the Straits of Hormuz would soon be reopened; which should soothe the supply chain constraints facing businesses.

Amid rising volatility in the market, SEBI is exploring the real time addition of option strikes during trading hours. This will catalyse better market continuity during times of volatility. That would ensure that there are always options available near to the market price. The strikes to be added real-time will be determined by the exchanges on a daily basis. This will be tuned with removal of distant strike prices. These new rules will apply across equity, indices, commodities, and currencies. Public comments are invited till June 15, post which SEBI will announce the final framework.

Bharti Enterprises is urging the UK government to help the group raise its stake in British Telecom (BT) to just under 30%. Under the extant rules, UK government approval will be required under the British National Security Act, if the stake crosses 25% in BT. While Bharti Enterprises plans to take its stake in BT to 29.9%, it does not plan an acquisition at this juncture. Currently, Bharti Enterprises has 24.95% stake in BT. Shares of BT have risen 55% since Bharti first took a stake in 2024, so clearly the shareholders are not complaining. Bharti Airtel already has a massive presence in Africa.

There have been 4 rounds of petrol and diesel hikes in the last fortnight. However, the oil marketing companies (OMCs) are still losing ₹600 crore per day on under-recoveries. The total hike in price has been around ₹7.50 per litre overall, but it is still grossly inadequate considering the sharp spike in crude prices from $65/bbl to $105/bbl since the US-Iran war began towards the end of February 2026. When the market price of petrol and diesel do not rise in tandem with crude prices, OMCs bear the loss. Fuel price hikes in India are inflationary and also a politically sensitive issue.

A report by Antique Broking has underlined that private banks in India could outperform PSU banks on earnings growth over next 2 years. While loan growth will be robust for banks overall, private banks will gain from stable margins and lower risks. Most private banks are trading at relatively low valuations, compared to their historic averages. Between FY26 and FY28, the earnings growth of private banks at 17% is likely to substantially outpace the earnings growth of PSU banks at 6%. PSU banks are likely to face impact of wage revisions and higher credit loss provisioning.

Zepto is planning to file its IPO papers with SEBI in June with the IPO dates subject to regulatory approvals. The IPO size is expected to be in the region of $1 billion or ₹9,600 crore. Roadshows are likely to begin towards the end of June. Zepto; along with Blinkit and Instamart, dominates the quick commerce space in India. The IPO will include a fresh issue of shares and an offer for sale (OFS) by early shareholders of Zepto. Big-ticket IPOs have been few and far between in 2026 and if Zepto goes through, it may only be the second $1 billion IPO after SBI Funds Management.

ICICI Bank has come out with a very bullish outlook for gold, pegging the target price at above $5,000/oz by the end of 2026. That is an upside of over 10% from current levels. It must be remembered that spot gold had crossed $5,000/oz in late January 2026, but has languished in a range since then. Gold is down nearly 15% since the US-Iran war started. The war triggered safe-haven buying in the dollar, which is negative for gold. At the same time, a spike in inflation, opened up the possibility of rate hikes, which raises the opportunity cost of holding gold!