Daily Market News Update — 23rd-24th September 2026

Midnight News Update: 23-24 Sep 2026

In an interesting move, 3 largest rating agencies (S&P, Moody’s and Fitch) have raised their India GDP growth projections for FY27. The trigger came from the flattering 7.8% real GDP growth reported by MOSPI in Q1FY27. However, the rating agencies have also cautioned that rising prices could dampen real growth meaningfully. S&P, Moody’s and ADB have raised their India GDP growth estimate for FY27 by 40 bps to 7.0%, while Fitch has raised the estimate by 50 bps to 6.9%. Q1FY27 saw robust industrial activity, healthy consumption and strong exports.

India’s smartphone sales during the festive season may not be able to offer hefty discounts as in previous years. In the last few years, discounts were driven by festive offers. However, with the spike in the cost of memory chips and other key electronic inputs, the retailers may find it tough to offer any meaningful discounts in the festive season. This year, the volumes are also expected to fall by 10% compared to last year. In the recent quarter, even the global smartphone market has contracted by 7.4%, mainly due to memory shortage and 13-18% price hike.

Germany has confirmed that it is all set to sign the $8 billion defence deal with India for the manufacture of submarines. The submarines will be manufactured in India, jointly by Thyssen Krupp of Germany and Mazagon Docks of India. The $8 billion submarine deal will also include the transfer of technology to India. For now, the immediate priority would also be to set up the full supply chain for the manufacture of submarines. The submarines will be equipped with air-independent propulsion, allowing them to remain underwater for much longer.

The NSE IPO is all set to list on 24-September. The refunds and demat credits will be completed by end of 23-September. It may be recollected that the ₹22,569 crore IPO had been subscribed 5.71 times at close, with the QIB portion getting subscribed 12.68 times. Under the extant SEBI rules, NSE cannot list on itself, so the primary listing will be on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). In addition, NSE also plans to allow trading on the stock at the Metropolitan Stock Exchange (MSEI) in the “Permitted To Trade” category. It is not clear if it will also be traded on NSE PTT.

The premiums enjoyed by the Indian global ETFs over their NAV values has compressed sharply. The Motilal Oswal NASDAQ Q50 ETF had seen its premium over NAV surge to 235% in the previous week. However, this week, there were a series of lower circuits and the premium has suddenly compressed to just 69%. Against the NAV of ₹120.05, it trades at ₹202.92, which is sharply lower from the peak price of ₹396.30 on 18-September. In the last 1 year, the underlying index is up 35%, but the above ETF has appreciated by 123%, creating a huge price risk for investors.

Pipe manufacturer, Welspun Corp, has expanded its global footprint, even as its order book position touched ₹44,100 crore. These are orders from the US, Saudi Arabia, and India. It includes the recent ₹17,200 crore ($1.80 billion) order received by its US subsidiary. The mega order will be fully executed between FY28 and FY29. Welspun has also given a positive guidance for its pipeline business due to rising demand from LNG exports, AI data centres, power infrastructure, as well as onshore and offshore oil pipeline investments. Welspun also supplies to Saudi Aramco.

Even as large cap pharma stocks have been neutral to positive in the recent past, the real action has been in the mid-cap pharma stocks. Mid cap pharma stocks have rallied anywhere between 120% and 350%. While a stock like Kwality Pharma rallied by 131%, Bliss GVK Pharma has shown a 345% rally in the last one year. Unlike the large cap pharma, the smaller stocks are not so US dependent. Also, the focus of these smaller pharma stocks is more on high-growth segments like CDMO, oncology products, peptides, and complex injectables, offering pricing power.

It may sound ironical, but Blackrock is betting on US equities despite the risk of higher bond yields. Normally, higher bond yields tend to discount future cash flows harder and tend to depress equity valuations. However, the argument given by Blackrock is based on 3 premises. Firstly, Blackrock believes that AI-driven growth would more than offset the drag from higher bond yields. Secondly, the infrastructure and bottleneck plays will continue to outperform the markets. Thirdly, US net profits in recent quarters have been immune to inflation or to labour tightness.