Daily Market News Update — 19th-20th October 2026

Midnight News Update: 19-20 Oct 2026

The Jio Platforms IPO saw a strong anchor response on Monday. Against the anchor allocation of ₹8,110 crore, the expressions of interest (EOI) received from investors was to the tune of ₹2,50,000 crore; which is nearly a 30X oversubscription. Big names that bid in the anchor allocation include Norges Bank, GIC Singapore, Blackrock, Fidelity, T Rowe Price, JP Morgan, Invesco, Franklin Templeton, ADIA, Qatar Investment Authority etc. The IPO opens for subscription on 21-October and the issue size will be ₹30,188 crore, at the upper price band of ₹1,119 per share.

Bajaj Finance reported 29% increase in net profits at ₹6,367 crore for Q2FY27. The net interest income (NII) for the quarter was up 24% at ₹13,335 crore. During Q2FY27, Bajaj Finance added 13.45 million new loans and 4.42 million new customers; taking its AUM to ₹5,84,624 crore as of September 2026. It expects loan disbursals and customer additions to sharply increase in the third quarter due to the festive season demand. Gross NPAs as of September 2026 tapered from 1.24% to 1.06%, while net NPAs tapered to 0.42%. Loan loss provisions stood at ₹2,166 crore.

China has a history of creating supply chain bottlenecks and it is now doing it in tunnel boring machines. This is likely to impact India, which depends heavily on China for these machines. China’s export controls on tunnel boring machines, excavators, and dredging machines take effect from 18-November. This can impact India’s metro, high-speed rail, and border infrastructure projects. In addition, China is also planning restrictions on AI equipment, photovoltaic cells etc, which could also have an impact on India. India runs its widest merchandise trade deficit with China.

Amid rising war-risk concerns in the Middle East, the freight charges have gone up sharply for Indian importers. A barrel of oil, that costs around $100/bbl after a discount, has a landed cost in the range of $125 to $130/bbl. That is a substantial uptick coming from freight and related charges. Even insurance premiums have gone up sharply as random drones from Iran continue to be a big risk factor. This spike has squeezed refining margins by up to $10/bbl in recent months. Freight charges have gone up between 3-fold and 5-fold for tankers due to the war effect.

With the US putting off sanctions on Russian crude as well as on products made out of Russian crude, India is making the best of the export opportunity. India’s fuel exports (largely diesel) to the Western nations spiked by 43% in September. Reliance Jamnagar refinery supplied 6 out of the 7 cargo tankers to Europe. Indian diesel, made out of Russian crude, was also shipped to Australia, the US, and New Zealand. In the last 2 months, India has seen its imports of Russian crude fall as the discount on Russian Ural crude gradually diminished, pushing India towards Gulf oil.

NB Holdings Corporation, a unit of Bank of America, has sought the approval of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for its proposed acquisition of 49.9% stake in Jio Credit. It is a unit of Jio Financial Services. Currently, NB Holdings does not have any direct business operation in India. For Jio Financial, this is an opportunity to partially monetize its stake in the Jio Credit unit, while Bank of America gets a foothold in the Indian credit market. Currently, there are very limited overlaps between the business activities of NB Holdings Corporation and Jio Credit.

CRISIL has cautioned that the core equity capital (CET1) of Yes Bank may fall to 10% if the past coupons are paid on the AT-1 bonds. It may be recollected that, last week, the Supreme Court upheld the Bombay HC judgement that the administrator was not authorized to write off the ₹8,415 crore of AT-1 bonds in the books of Yes Bank. That was part of the restructuring deal. The coupon liability for the intervening period alone would be around ₹6,200 crore, net of taxes. However, CRISIL underlined that it would not overly impact the credit profile of Yes Bank.

Ultratech Cements reported 21% higher net profits at ₹1,501 crore for Q2FY27. Sales were up 19% yoy at ₹23,024 crore in the quarter, despite the West Asia crisis and erratic monsoons. However, net profits were -42% lower on a sequential basis. Domestic grey cement volumes were up 13.8% yoy at 35.94 million tonnes. Capacity utilization went up from 66% to 71% in the quarter. The cement demand has been robust amid a strong construction quarter and infrastructure outlays. The stock price was subdued; falling 5% in the last month and over 11% in last 6 months.