Daily Market News Update — 16th-17th August 2026

Midnight News Update: 16-17 Aug 2026

Iran and Oman may be edging closer to a deal, which may allow resumption of normal trade through the Straits of Hormuz. While it is not clear whether Iran will charge transit fees, it is now apparent that there will be a levy, which will be shared by Iran and Oman based on the safe transit provided to these ships. The US has been insisting on unconditional opening of the Straits of Hormuz, which Iran is not willing to accede to. Iran wants defreezing of their dollar funds with global banks as well as the US and Israel to pay damages to Iran for war-related damages.

With $56 billion coming through FCNR(B) deposits since 08-June, RBI has decided to close the FCNR special window 1 month early. Therefore, any FCNR(B) deposits that come in after 31-Aug will not be eligible for the forex cover by RBI. The central bank is concerned that total FCNR(B) flows may touch $80-$85 billion by end of August, and anything more than that would be tough for the government to handle. For deposits coming in up to 31-Aug, the RBI is offering time up to 11-Sep for swap availability. OFCB and ECB scheme will remain open till end of Dec-2026.

NSE Clearing plans to launch shorter tenure SLBM (stock lending & borrowing mechanism) contracts from 17-Aug. This new R3 series will have a 3-day settlement cycle. Under this new R3 structure, the first leg of the SLB transaction executed on T-day, will be settled on T+1, while the corresponding reverse leg will be settled on T+3. These shorter-tenure SLBM contracts will only be available on F&O stocks. Unlike regular SLB contracts, the facility to recall, repay, and roll over will not be available in these R3 contracts. The lending fee is also much lower.

Svatantara Microfin, backed by Ananya Birla, became the second largest micro finance institution (MFI) to tap the IPO market. The DRHP has just been filed, and the IPO size is likely to be ₹3,000 crore. The IPO will include a fresh issue of ₹1,500 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of ₹1,500 crore. The fresh issue funds will be used to boost the Tier-1 capital, so that the company can seamlessly expand its lending book. It is also considering a pre-IPO placement of ₹300 crore, which if successful, will be reduced from the final IPO size. Net profits in FY26 stood at ₹649 crore.

As per data released by RBI, the balance of payment (BOP) for Q1FY27 showed a deficit of $8.1 billion, largely due to widening merchandise trade deficit. Economists believe that this shows the picture before the deluge of FCNR (B) deposits came into India and may be misleading. Forex reserve have already risen to $707 billion due to surge in FCNR(B) flows in last 45 days. Current account deficit (CAD) widened marginally to $3.1 billion. The fourth quarter of FY26 had seen a current account surplus of $7.0 billion. Services trade surplus is struggling to keep pace.

With the IPO market seeing positive action in July, domestic mutual funds deployed nearly ₹9,700 crore into 11 IPOs in July 2026. Among the big mutual fund investments in July; these funds had deployed ₹3,622 crore into the Indo-MIM IPO, ₹2,344 crore into SBI Mutual Fund IPO, ₹1,652 crore into Manipal Health Enterprises IPO, ₹723 crore into the Lohia Corp IPO, ₹393 crore in Juniper Green Energy IPO, and smaller amounts in several other IPOs. Mutual funds can invest in an IPO, either as an anchor investor before the IPO opens, or as part of the QIB quota.

The IT and business process management (BPM) segment is seeing one of the toughest phases of recruitment in the last few years. For the first half of FY27, the workforce accretion is likely to fall to 70,000 from 95,000 in the first half of FY26. That is 26% lower manpower recruitments. Not only are IT-BPM players already overstaffed, but AI is also reducing the need for human jobs. The pace of hiring is expected to pick up steam in H2-FY27. However, even within the IT space, the AI-native roles have grown by more than 70%, while specialized IT jobs are also growing rapidly.

IPO subscription levels increased meaningfully in the month of July 2026. Let us look at the last 5 IPOs. Molbio Diagnostics was subscribed 70.26X, and got collections of ₹46,540 crore. Dhoot Transmissions IPO was subscribed 74.21X, and got collections of ₹1,62,225 crore. Milky Mist Dairy IPO was subscribed 56.12X, and got collections of ₹64,731 crore. Shiprocket Ltd IPO was subscribed 99.38X, and got collections of ₹91,765 crore. Finally, BLEL IPO was subscribed 108.44X, and got collections of ₹70,290 crore. That is buying interest of ₹4,35,551 crore for the week.