Daily Market News Update — 28th-29th September 2026

Midnight News Update: 28-29 Sep 2026

Tata Trusts propose to merge the electronic subsidiaries into Tata Sons, so that Tata Sons can shed the CIC tag and avoid mandatory listing. Once this merger is completed, Tata Sons would become an operational company, while also being a holding company. Effectively, Tata Electronics and Tata Consulting Engineers will be merged into Tata Sons. That way, it can continue to stay unlisted. This proposal has to be approved by the board of Tata Sons. Tata Trusts have also informed the RBI about the proposal sent to Tata Sons. RBI approval will be needed for this plan.

IIP growth for August came in at a robust 8.0%, well above the revised July IIP of 7.4%. The big thrust came from manufacturing growth of 9.0% in August, even as electricity and gas supply grew by 12.3% in the month. Manufacturing has a substantial impact on IIP with its 76% weightage. This growth comes on top of July IIP growth being revised up by 70 bps to 7.4%, which shows that the domestic manufacturing has momentum in its favour. A total of 18 of 23 industry groups in manufacturing expanded output. Motor vehicles and electrical equipment led the way.

As the RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) prepares for its upcoming monetary policy from 05-07 October; markets are almost unanimous about a 25-bps rate hike. With Brent Crude at $107/bbl and August CPI inflation coming in at 4.82%; there are very few options left for the RBI. A rate hike will also avoid the risk of monetary divergence, with the US Fed having already raised rates by 25-bps in September. In addition, CME Fedwatch has hinted at one more rate hike in 2026 and 2 more rate hikes in 2027. A rate hike by RBI will also reduce the pressure on the rupee.

The East-West pipeline in Saudi Arabia is back in operation, and it comes as a big relief for Saudi Arabia and for the rest of the world. The East-West pipeline connects the eastern gas fields of Saudi Arabia with Yanbu port on the Red Sea. This allows vessels to entirely avoid the Straits of Hormuz, which has become the major chokepoint in global oil and gas maritime trade. The flows of oil through the pipeline were halted for a few weeks back after Houthi drones damaged the pipelines. However, the Yanbu pipeline can still re-route only about 4% of global oil supply.

Even before the completion of 6 months of FY27, the RBI has already sold bonds worth ₹1 trillion. With a massive liquidity glut in the market due to the $133 billion of FCNR(B) deposits being swapped for Indian rupees, such liquidity absorption was inevitable. Bond market analysts expect this RBI bond selling to touch ₹2 trillion by December this year. The FCNR(B) window had seen unprecedented flows of $133 billion in just a little over 2 months on the back of attractive interest rates, sponsored forex hedge by RBI, CRR/SLR exemption, and leverage by global banks.

IndusInd Bank, currently being headed by Rajiv Anand, has pioneered the creation of a dedicated banking vertical for global capability centres (GCC). Currently, India has about 2,117 GCCs, which are affiliated to large global companies and manage their legal, accounting, customer service, as well as R&D and production design. GCCs in India have been gradually moving up the value chain, with Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai emerging as hubs for GCCs. The IndusInd strategy will bring corporate banking and employee banking for GCC under one single relationship.

According to a Nielsen survey, FMCG volumes declined by 2% in the second quarter of FY27. While Urban India showed tepid 0.1% growth, rural demand contracted -5% due to a slowdown in rural incomes amid a weak monsoon and lower farm output in 2026. More importantly, nearly 68% of the FMCG categories saw shrinkage in volumes. In addition, the margins of FMCG companies are also being hit by higher costs. Market prices were up 2.8% on an average, which managed to offset some of the problems faced by FMCG companies. It is indicative of a broad slowdown.

Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea added over 5.02 million users in August, taking the industry mobile base to 1,293.43 million. While urban subscribers rose 0.70% to 748.84 million, the rural subscriber base increased marginally by 0.06% to 544.58 million users. Private telecom players continue to dominate the mobile market, accounting for 92.75% of wireless subscriber base. Jio remains the largest broadband player with 53.80 crore subscribers, followed by Airtel at 38.64 crore subscribers, and Vodafone Idea at 13.09 crore. There were 1.58 crore MNP requests.