Weekly Market Impact — for the week ending 28th August 2026

Weekly Capsule (Aug 24 – Aug 28) and Impact Analysis

SEBI gives approval for largest ever IPO of Jio Platforms worth ₹37,700 crore

• The entire issue will be a fresh issue of around 27 crore shares with no offer for sale (OFS) component in the IPO
• Nearly ₹27,500 crore will be utilized to repay company debt, and final valuation of Jio Platforms could cross $120 billion

HDFC CEO, Sasidhar Jagdishan, 5-year term comes to an end in October 2026

• The interim chairman has had a discussion with the RBI governor on the subject of second term for Jagdishan
• The year saw the chairman’s resignation, slump in market cap, allegations of payouts to MSRDC, and mis-selling of bonds

Venu Srinivasan’s position on the board of Tata Sons appears to be untenable

• Venu Srinivasan, a nominee of the trusts, had publicly spoken favouring listing of Tata Sons; contrary to the Trust stand
• Srinivasan had also filed objections with Charity Commissioner over the large number of perpetual trustees in Tata Trusts

Air India seeks $1.50 billion infusion, but Singapore Airlines seeks more time

• With an uproar in Singapore Parliament, Singapore Airlines will evaluate the plans of Air India before committing funds
• Singapore Airlines has a 25.1% stake in Air India, and the apprehension is that there may be more funding demands

Quick Commerce expands to over 477 cities across length and breadth of India

• While the market leaders like Blinkit, Zepto, and Instamart are in urban clusters, Amazon and Flipkart are going semi-urban
• The traditional retailers are making their vast store network double up as fulfilment centres to enable quick commerce

US Q2-GDP growth comes in lower at 1.5%; July PCE inflation flat at 3.7%

• The GDP for Q2 is sharply lower compared to 2.1% in Q1, and this can be attributed to the supply chain constraints
• PCE inflation was flat at 3.7%, but higher than expected, and it is likely to once again raise the demand for Fed rate hike

Bullion traders and jewellers demand relief on 15% duties on gold and silver

• With jewellery demand slowing due to affordability issues, a cut in duties would offer some relief on the price front
• However, a cut in duties is unlikely as the government is keen to limit the forex usage for funding unproductive gold imports

With the NSE IPO imminent, the focus now shifts to listing of the NSE stock

• NSE has to list on the BSE as SEBI regulations do not allow an exchange to list on itself, to avoid conflict of interest
• NSE may include its stock in the permitted to trade (PTT) segment, but SEBI will not approve price discovery in NSE PTT

Indo-US 10-year bond yield spreads narrows to around 210 basis points

• Such narrow spreads were seen during 2004, and a yield spread of 300 bps is necessary to keep Indian bonds attractive
• High inflation in the US and its debt pile crossing $40 trillion has led to a spike in US bond yields; narrowing the spreads

Chinese Premier, Xi Jinping, is expected to visit India for the BRICS Summit

• This is his first visit since 2019; since relationships had been relatively frigid after the Galwan incursions by China in 2020
• However, things have improved after PM Modi visited China as counter strategy to the US imposed tariffs on Indian goods

The USDINR for the week remained in a narrow range of ₹95.50/$ to ₹95.70/$

• While elevated oil prices are a concern, the FCNR(B) flows and RBI defence are keeping the rupee in a narrow range
• What will be interesting to see is if the rupee can sustain in a range after the FCNR(B) window closes on 31-August 2026

Brent crude prices sobered during the week falling from $92/bbl to $88/bbl

• The fall was more because traders opted to cut leveraged positions ahead of Fed chair speech at Jackson Hole
• Oil flows are still constrained through Hormuz Straits and the Red Sea route, but alternate supply routes are taking care

Four weeks of August saw FPI inflows of $3.15 billion into the equity markets

• While $1.86 billion came in through secondary market buying, the balance $1.26 billion came through IPO investments
• However, FPIs were net sellers in bonds to the tune of $362 million in August, reducing the overall net buy in the month

Gold scaled higher to $4,611/oz, while silver rallied to $70.75/oz this week

• Gold and silver were marginally up as traders do not expect any hawkish signal from Kevin Warsh at Jackson Hole
• Structurally, most brokerages continue to remain bullish on gold and the sharp fall from peaks, makes them attractive

Tatas and Shapoorji group explore partial stake buy plan for liquidity

• Tatas may buyout a part of the 18.4% stake held by the SP group in Tata Sons, which will help ease their debt burden
• SP group has raised funds via private credit at high rates of interest; but creditors want clarity on Tata Sons stake

India July IIP slows to 6.7% in July 2026, sharply lower than 8.8% in June

• While mining output contracted by -0.9%; manufacturing was robust at 7.3% and electricity grew at 8.7% for July 2026
• Manufacturing surge was led by motor vehicles, electrical equipment, beverages, and machinery; tobacco contracted

Raghuram Rajan has called for the Fed to hike rates in response to inflation

• Rajan underlined that the current financial conditions in the US were too loose and were inconsistent with inflation control
• He also dismissed fears of impact on cost of borrowing, as the US economy not did appear constrained by borrowing costs

India’s forex chest swells to $729 billion in the week to 21-Aug on FCNR boost

• The surge in forex reserves was obvious with nearly $73 billion coming in via FCNR(B) flows, ECBs, and OFCBs in 2 months
• This takes the forex reserves to its highest level ever and is now sufficient to cover 10 months of merchandise imports

Indian duties add about 23% to the landed cost of Chinese lithium batteries

• Landed cost of lithium cells in India stands at $67 per KWH as compared to the Chinese cost of $54.5 per KWH
• This remains a major constraint for companies in BESS, which is the big missing link in India’s renewable energy plans

Hero Moto to infuse additional ₹1,758 crore into recently listed Ather Energy

• This infusion will consolidate Hero Moto’s stake in Ather Energy to 32.8% from its current holding of 29.88%
• Ather Energy is into designing and manufacturing of electric two-wheelers and operating storage distribution systems

For July 2026, Airtel added 26.9 lakh subscribers and Jio added 24.5 lakhs

• Vodafone Idea and BSNL also added about 4 lakh connections between them, even as Jio continues to be the biggest player
• Out of the all-India subscriber base of 128.79 crore, Jio has 50.60 crore subscribers and Airtel has 48.94 crore subscribers