Daily Market News Update — 17th-18th September 2026

Midnight News Update: 17-18 Sep 2026

It was a weird situation at the Tata group. The board of Tata Sons passed a resolution to reappoint N Chandrasekaran as chairman of Tata Sons for another 5 years. The board also passed a resolution to work towards a possible listing of Tata Sons, after RBI refused to allow Tata Sons to surrender its CIC registration. However, Noel Tata has rejected both these resolutions. According to Noel Tata, Chandra had expressed his desire to move on and that matter was closed. Also, Noel Tata said that Tata Sons cannot pass a resolution that is contrary to what Trusts have decided.

As expected, the US Federal Reserve tightened by raising the benchmark rates by 25 bps to the range of 3.75%-4.00%. This is the first rate-hike in 3 years. According to Kevin Warsh, this was necessitated due to higher inflation and geopolitical uncertainty; even as GDP growth and jobs situation remained fairly robust. He underlined that price stability was foremost at this juncture. The projections of the FOMC members and the CME Fedwatch probabilities indicate that there could be another rate hike of 25 bps by December 2026, and possibly two more in 2027.

Despite the sanctions threatened by the US, India is unlikely to cut its imports of crude from Russia. For now, the world market is undersupplied and alternatives are too expensive. For India, a good strategy is to diversify its sources of crude. This will allow them the best combination of price and crude quality. If Trump approves the bill, then tariffs on Indian exports to the US could go back to 100% as penalty for being secondary buyer of Russian oil. Given a choice, India will prefer to remain uncompetitive on exports, as long as the energy security was fully taken care of.

Talking of Russian sanctions, Oil India is exploring ways to bring back $300 million of dividends from its Russian oil assets back to India. This ₹2,880 crore is stuck in Russia due to current US sanctions. The dividend has been held up at the Moscow branch of SBI. These dividends pertain to Oil India’s stake holdings in JSC Vankorneft and Tass Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha. Currently, Oil India needs funds to expand capacity at its Numaligarh refinery in Assam. Oil India is also building a 1,635 KM crude oil pipeline from the Paradip port in Odisha to its oil refinery in Assam.

Brookfield of the US will invest up to $600 million in India’s ACME green fuels business. This will help the company to develop and build its green ammonia and green methanol projects. It marks Brookfield’s entry into the low-carbon sector in the region. ACME has already secured supply agreements with Yara International of Norway, as well as IHI Corp and Mitsubishi Gas Chemicals of Japan. Demand for green fuels is expected to rise rapidly as industries seek RE options to cut emissions. Brookfield already has substantial RE assets in India of about 50 GW.

The interest of PE funds in India’s healthcare sector continues with the latest being Yatharth Hospitals. Advent plans to buy 24.9% stake in Yatharth Hospitals for ₹3,150 crore. The transaction will entail the issue of fresh equity shares and warrants on a preferential basis to Advent. Yatharth is a listed company, and the stock surged 9% of the news. Advent will subscribe up to 1.30 crore shares and an additional 1.89 crore warrants at a price of ₹985.17 per share. Apart from capital, Advent also brings in deep healthcare expertise, global insights and a value focus.

Global PE major, EQT of Sweden, will invest up to $50 billion in India over the next 3-4 years. Nearly 70% of that corpus will be allocated to AI, data centres, and green energy. The remaining $15 billion will be invested across early-stage strategies. According to EQT, there was a mismatch in India; in that there were plenty of entrepreneurs but limited funding options. That is where EQT plans to fit in. EQT has already invested $26 billion in India since 2023 across areas like healthcare, housing finance, technology etc. Globally, India is less than 5% of EQT private equity investments.

India may have something to think about at the boardroom level. In FY26 alone, a total of 668 independent directors resigned from the boards of listed companies. In recent months, high profile exits by independent directors from the boards of Coforge and HDFC Bank are cases in point. One concern is that, while independent directors are supposed to lend support in a crisis, they are the first to drift away. Independent directors on boards are brought in for their professional pedigree, but quite often, the temptation to protect oneself is strong. It is surely a cause for debate!