Daily Market News Update - 01st-02nd November 2026

Midnight News Update: 01-02 Nov 2026

The US and Iran will hold indirect peace talks in Doha after Qatar offered to mediate between the two warring nations. It will be with active mediation of Qatar, although Qatar has been urging Iran and the US to sit across the table and negotiate directly. There has been some progress with an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, opening up the Straits of Hormuz, and financial incentives for Tehran (China and Russia guaranteeing the agreement). Qatar enjoys good relations with the US and Iran and came into the picture after Pakistan could do little on the peace front.

India’s crude oil imports are likely to touch a record level in October, with final data still awaited. Oil imports are slated to rise 14% to 5.63 million barrels per day (bpd). A surge in supplies from Russia made up for weak oil movement from the Middle East. The corresponding imports were 5.34 million bpd in September and 4.95 million bpd in October 2025. Russia is still India’s largest supplier, although its share in India’s import basket is down to 35% in October, from 55% in July. Big surge in oil supplies came from Angola, Venezuela, and Brazil in Atlantic basin.

Year 2026 has seen a 13% deficient rainfall, and a decline in sowing area. Persisting El Nino effects and low reservoir levels are likely to impact Rabi output this year. The output of rice is likely to be lower this year, leading to a spike in rice prices. In fact, paddy yield is likely to be about 5% lower this year. Much of paddy harvesting in North India starts around November. Against record rice output of 154 MT in 2025-26, the rice output for 2026-27 is expected to be less than 147 MT. Retail inflation in rice has already spiked in the month of September from 5.89% to 8.25%.

According to reports coming from broker research, the growth in bank deposits has been quite ordinary in the September 2026 quarter if the impact of the FCNR(B) deposits was excluded. For instance, deposit growth in Q2FY27 stood at a robust 21.1% yoy, but if you remove the impact of FCNR(B) deposits, growth was just 12.2%; effectively around 900 bps lower. In short, the domestic deposit mobilization continues to be tepid, but has been masked in the second quarter due to the deluge from FCNR(B). That is a worry, as this growth will not sustain in Q3FY27.

NTPC reported 40.7% higher net profits for Q2FY27 at ₹7,351 crore, while consolidated revenues were up 21.2% at ₹54,270 crore. Its coal-based power plants reported a plant load factor (PLF) of 75.11% during the first half of FY27. The company also declared an interim dividend of ₹3 per share with record date of 06-November. The profit growth was largely driven by a 73% surge in profits of its subsidiaries. NTPC is the largest power generator in India and has been seeing record power demand in the last few months, even as Coal India has struggled to make coal available.

From 01-November, Direct Funds will be the default option for mutual fund investors. Typically, the gap between the total expense ratio of a Regular plan and Direct Plan is around 125 bps to 150 bps and such a gap tends to compound substantially in favour of a direct plan in the long run. Direct plans do not charge the customer for advisory and distribution expenses, and SEBI view is that it should be left to customers how they want to avail and pay for the advice. In India, retail investors have typically preferred regular plans, and that trend is unlikely to change very soon.

Even as power demand touches new highs in India, Coal India is facing a rapid depletion of reserves. It is now estimated that a large number of power plants in India have coal stocks for just about 6 days of production. In the last 6 months, Coal India has faced 49% depletion in its coal stocks, as offtake surged by 76%. The company reported coal production of 321 MT with offtake of 384 MT. However, with depleting reserves, Coal India will just about be able to supply its output. In the last 6 months, CIL’s coal inventory has almost halved from 130.28 million tonnes to 66.58 MT.

Bank lending to the commercial sector was up sharply in the first half of FY27 as rising bond yields have been making corporate bond borrowing expensive. In the April to August period (FY27), the non-food bank credit increased to ₹9.80 trillion. The 21.6% growth in bank credit was offset by a sharp fall in bond issuances. Overall credit growth has also remained strong across major sectors of the economy. While lending to large industries was robust, the lending to medium and small industries grew much faster. Services sector also witnessed 24.3% credit growth.