Expiry Jitters Grip Street
The Nifty50 closed at 24,219.05, down 0.14%, while the Sensex slipped 0.22% to 77,369.11 as traders braced for monthly F&O expiry alongside looming US sanctions tied to Iran. Bank Nifty underperformed, down 0.41% to 57,525.95, suggesting financials bore the brunt of pre-expiry positioning even as broader sentiment stayed cautious rather than panicked. Volatility into expiry sessions is typical, but the confluence with geopolitical headline risk added an extra layer of hesitation.
H-1B Cloud Over IT, TCS Bucks Trend
Reports of a proposed increase in H-1B visa fees put Infosys, TCS and other IT majors under the scanner, given the sector's historical dependence on the visa programme for US delivery. Yet Nifty IT still edged up 0.21% to 30,596.9, helped by TCS announcing a $1.45 billion Porsche deal that includes acquiring the carmaker's IT arm MHP for $373 million (€320 million), its second European mega-deal in eight months. The juxtaposition -- a structural cost threat versus a large new order book -- captures the sector's current tension between near-term policy risk and deal-driven revenue visibility.
Dollar Bond Rush Accelerates
Indian lenders have now raised over $10 billion via offshore dollar bonds since RBI opened its special swap window, with ICICI Bank leading the pack after pricing $1 billion in five-year notes at 5.41%, its fourth issuance this month. Union Bank raised $600 million in its first international dollar bond in over a decade, while IDFC FIRST Bank added $350 million at 5.8% and Federal Bank became the latest to tap GIFT City for foreign-currency bonds. The scale and pace of this issuance points to banks locking in offshore liquidity while conditions remain favourable, a trend worth tracking for its funding-cost implications.
New-Age Stocks See Stake Churn
SoftBank's Vision Fund II offloaded a 2.6% stake in Lenskart worth ₹2,888 crore, cutting its holding to 7.28% from 9.86%, even after the eyewear retailer posted 43.3% revenue growth and profit nearly quadrupling in the June quarter. Separately, Y Combinator-linked entities sold Meesho shares worth ₹970 crore, with buyers including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and domestic funds like Nippon India Mutual Fund and HDFC Life. Early-stage investors trimming positions in profitable new-age companies, even as institutional demand absorbs the supply, is a pattern that merits attention rather than alarm.
L&T's Order Machine Keeps Running
Larsen & Toubro secured its third 'ultra-mega' order of the month, worth over ₹15,000 crore, for a gas compression facilities project in West Asia, underscoring sustained hydrocarbon infrastructure demand from the Gulf. Garden Reach Shipbuilders separately announced a ₹2,670 crore capex plan across three facilities in West Bengal to expand warship and commercial vessel capacity. Together these signal continued order-book momentum in capital goods and defence-adjacent manufacturing even as broader indices stay range-bound.
Copper, Wheat and Trade Policy Moves
The government set a floor price of ₹514 per share for its Hindustan Copper OFS, a 10.45% discount to market, after the stock rallied 17% in August on global copper supply concerns. Separately, India lifted its wheat flour export ban with immediate effect, and trade talks with the GCC bloc progressed in Riyadh as part of a wider push, per Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, to cover 75% of global trade via new FTAs. These policy shifts touch commodities, agri-trade and market access simultaneously, reflecting an active policy calendar beyond equities.
Global Cross-Currents Diverge
US markets sent mixed signals overnight: the Dow Jones rose 0.26% to 53,417.16 even as the Nasdaq fell 0.76% to 25,980.19, reflecting tech-specific caution that dovetails with India's own IT sector unease. In Asia, the Nikkei dropped 0.87% to 64,959.48 and South Korea's KOSPI fell over 1% on Samsung Electronics' disappointing shareholder payout plans, while the Hang Seng was flat at 25,517.33. Brent crude eased slightly to $92.03 as markets weigh expected US sanctions on Iran, a factor India's import-dependent economy will watch closely given its bearing on the rupee, currently steady at 95.73 per dollar.