Weekly Market Impact — for the week ending 14th August 2026

Weekly Capsule (Aug 10 – Aug 14) and Impact Analysis

N Chandrasekaran steps down from the helm of Tata Sons; will complete term

• This brings an end to a long-standing dispute between Noel Tata and Chandra; as the latter insisted on unanimity of choice
• The search has begun for the next chairman of Tata Sons; and T V Narendran of Tata Steel is the most likely candidate

India goods trade deficit widens to $31.98 billion for month of July 2026

• While goods exports were up 19.5% yoy, merchandise imports were also up 17.5% yoy; which widened the dollar deficit
• However, the surplus in the services trade has reduced the overall trade deficit for July 2026 to $15.03 billion.

MSCI India makes 4 additions and 3 deletions from its MSCI India Index

• While Laurus Labs, Lenskart, Groww, and Adani Energy are in; the exits include Astral, Balkrishna Industries, and SBI Cards
• This increases the number of companies in MSCI India Index from 165 to 166, and will trigger passive flows of $1.50 billion

India CPI inflation for July 2026 came in higher at 4.45%; up 100 bps since April

• CPI inflation was led higher by food inflation, which scaled up to 5.52%, even as core inflation tapered to 3.85% in July
• With inflation staying above the median 4% mark for second month in succession, rate hike question is back on the table

Bharti Airtel eliminates base ₹299 plan and brings in ₹349 plan to boost ARPU

• The elimination of the base plan will boost average revenue per user (ARPU) of Bharti Airtel by 16.7% from ₹264 to ₹308
• While Airtel has been focusing on ROI per customer, Reliance Jio focused more on subscriber numbers, even at lower ARPU

Fitch retains the India sovereign rating at “BBB-“ with stable outlook

• This “BBB-“ rating is the lowest investment grading and rating agencies have not changed Indian ratings over the years
• Rating agencies highlight risks like low per capita income, high government debt, fiscal vulnerability, and rising crude prices

SEBI is likely to permit FPIs into the commodity derivatives segment

• The idea is to make commodity markets deeper, but FPIs can either square-off the position or roll it over to next month
• FPIs have to mandatorily close positions before the start of delivery period; but FPIs were not too enthusiastic in the past

US CPI inflation for July tapered to 3.4% in July, with MOM inflation at 0.1%

• While food inflation was at 3.0%, core inflation tapered to 0.8%; but energy inflation stayed elevated at 14.7%
• The big items driving inflation in July were gasoline, fuel oil, fruits, vegetables, non-alcoholic beverages, and airline fares

Equity mutual funds saw sharply lower inflows at ₹24,697 crore in July 2026

• Small Cap Funds (₹7,768 crore), Mid-Cap Funds (₹6,192 crore) and Flexi-Cap Funds (₹4,709 crore) led the inflows in July
• While sectoral flows remained subdued, large cap funds saw net outflows of ₹1,322 crore on large-cap macro risk boredom

Gross flows through SIPs in July 2026 were at ₹31,961 crore, the best in FY27

• SIP inflows crossed ₹1,25,800 crore in first 4 months of FY27, while SIP folios have touched 10.63 crore as of the end of July
• SIP stoppage ratio for July 2026 improved to 81.86%, while for the first 4 months of FY27, it stood at an elevated 91.93%

Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) in road projects has led to big project delays

• HAM was conceived to ease vendor liquidity via advance payments, but ₹60,000 crore of highway projects are delayed
• The delays in these HAM projects have been attributed to reasons like delays in land acquisition and aggressive pricing

SEBI has undertaken close analysis of Closing Auction Series (CAS) trading

• There has been heavy volatility seen during the few minutes of the CAS, which has led to price manipulation concerns
• It would be rather ironical as the concept of CAS was introduced to allow scientific discovery of closing index values

Indian rupee showed gradual tapering to close at ₹95.675 for the week

• For the week, the Indian rupee touched a high of ₹95.175/$ and a low point of ₹95.686/$, closing near the low point
• Despite the robust dollar flows via FCNR(B) deposits, the dollar short position of RBI continues to be the big overhang

Persistent Yen strength is a concern for India; on capital flows and hedging cost

• Japan has long been the preferred currency for carry trades, but with recent yen strength, the carry trades are unwinding
• Indian infra finance companies like PFC, IRFC and IREDA have large yen borrowings and are up against higher hedging costs

Brent closed the week at $87.95/bbl after touching a high of $90/bbl

• The virtual drying of ship movement through the Bab-al-Mandeb has been one of the key reasons for oil price spike
• However, upsides are likely to be limited due to demand destruction in recent months, and a glut of OPEC oil supply

FPIs infused $388.63 million into stocks this week; with FPIs selling in debt

• For August till date, FPIs have infused a total of $1.74 billion into Indian equities, while they have been sellers in debt
• For calendar 2026, FPIs net sold $25.42 billion in equities, while they were net buyers in debt to the tune of $8.48 billion

Gold closed higher at $4,392/oz, while silver rallied to $64.94/oz this week

• Both gold and silver saw buying interest in the week as Fed rate hike chances reduced with very soft employment data
• With the turmoil in the Middle East continuing, investors are still piling on to gold and silver as safe haven investments

RBI to close FCNR(B) swap facility early on 11-Sep, due to strong response

• Till 13-Aug, FCNR(B) flows clocked $52.30 billion, while OFCBs and ECBs contributed $4.55 billion, taking total to $56.85 bn
• The early closing is because, with the rupee not responding quickly, RBI does not want to increase its forex hedging risk

It was not just CPI inflation, but even WPI inflation in July tapered to 9.78%

• This is just 9 bps lower than the June figure of 9.87%, but it gives hope that the pressure on industrial costs will reduce
• The fall in WPI inflation was largely on account of moderation of fuel inflation by more than 1,400 basis points over June

SAT allows Zee to go ahead with ₹3,144 crore fund raising, but the ban stays

• Zee promoters have been asked to deposit the penalty amount with SEBI, and go ahead with the fund raising
• Zee counsel has argued that SEBI had issued an ex-parte order to stop the fund raising, after shareholders had approved it

India entrance test preparation market likely to touch $26 billion by FY30

• The big growth in the entrance test preparation market is likely to be led by NEET exams and the IIT JEE examinations
• Among the key considerations for success in this business are the quality of the faculty and the past track record in exams