Finnovate Weekly Capsule (July 21–July 25, 2025)

This week, the financial world witnessed several high-impact developments – from major IPOs and government policy signals to inflation updates and corporate performance. Here’s a detailed breakdown of the key events and what they mean for the Indian economy, markets, and investors.

1. Indo and UK sign the Comprehensive Economic & Trade Agreement (CETA)

Impact Analysis

• With the trade deal in place, India gets duty-free access to the UK markets for nearly 95% of its agricultural products
• While the UK trade is expected to grow nearly 3-fold in the next 8 years, sensitive areas have been kept out of the deal

2. US Senator Lindsey Graham threatens India with bone-crushing sanctions

Impact Analysis

• Graham was clearly referring to the 100% tariffs that the US would impose, if India continued to buy crude oil from Russia
• India has been categorical in its talks with the US that it would not appreciate any interference in its energy security efforts

3. Fed governor, Chris Waller, has called for a rate cut of 25 bps in 30-Jul meet

Impact Analysis

• According to Waller, tariff impact on inflation would be one-time and should not overly influence the rate cut decision
• More importantly, Waller expressed concern that consumer spending weakness could hit growth and labour markets

4. The ₹4,000 crore IPO of NSDL will open for subscription on July 30, 2025

Impact Analysis

• The NSDL IPO will entirely be an offer for sale with early investors like NSE, IDBI Bank, SBI, and SUUTI taking an exit
• In the Indian depository market, while CDSL leads in number of demat accounts, NSDL leads in demat custody value

5. Core sector growth at 1.71% improved over last 2 months, but Q1 was at 1.3%

Impact Analysis

• In June, the positive vibes to the core sector growth came from heavyweights like steel and refinery products
• However, the growth of core sector overall was curtailed by the sharp contraction in coal output due to the monsoons

6. Reuters poll suggests; RBI to hold status quo on repo rates in August MPC meet

Impact Analysis

• A pause is likely after 100 bps rate cut and 100 bps CRR cut, although the final decision could depend on Fed July meet
• In June policy, MPC had changed the stance of policy from “Accommodative” to “Neutral” hinting at a pause in rate cuts

7. JSW Cement to trim IPO size to ₹3,600 crore at a valuation of ₹20,000 crore

Impact Analysis

• The IPO will be a combination of fresh issue and OFS, with Apollo Global, Synergy Metals, and SBI selling in the OFS
• JSW Cement has also adopted an inorganic route to growth, but will have to contend with Ultratech and Adani Cements

8. Amagi Media Labs, backed by Premji Finvest, Accel; files DRHP for IPO

Impact Analysis

• The IPO of Amagi Media Labs will comprise of a fresh issue of ₹1,020 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of 3.40 crore shares
• Amagi, a Bengaluru based streaming and broadcast solutions provider, will use funds for tech investments and cloud infra

9. Google parent, Alphabet, surprises the street with capex spike to $85 billion

Impact Analysis

• This comes in the light of the fact that the June quarter growth in top line revenues was driven by cloud services
• Google was originally supposed to invest $75 billion, as part of the $320 billion that big tech was to pour into AI capabilities

10. Reliance arm buys another 9.9% in Nauyaan Shipyard from Welspun Corp

Impact Analysis

• Nauyaan Shipyard is located at Dahej, Gujarat; and has 138 acres of land on lease near the Reliance manufacturing plant
• This will boost Swan Defence (formerly Reliance Naval and Engineering) in emerging as the top-5 in defence fabrication

11. ACC Q1FY26 sales grew 18% to ₹6,035 crore but net profits grew just 4.4%

Impact Analysis

• However, ACC reported 14.5% higher EBITDA for the quarter at ₹778 crore, but EBITDA margins slipped 30 bps to 12.8%
• Sales volumes were sharply higher by 13% yoy at 11.5 million tonnes and is one of the key drivers of Adani Cements

12. Air India reported FY25 net loss of ₹10,859 crore; 48% higher yoy

Impact Analysis

• This is despite the fact that Air India reported strong growth of 18% in revenues for FY25 at ₹78,636 crore on higher capacity
• Higher occupancy and PLF also helped Air India top line, but losses look stark compared to ₹7,258 crore profits at Indigo

13. ITC Ltd plans to invest ₹20,000 crore into domestic manufacturing activity

Impact Analysis

• This would include major investments into FMCG, paper, and packaging and will focus more on India than on exports
• ITC will also invest in setting up and nurturing localized supply chains, so that they can handle digital challenges better

14. Tata Sons plans to set up hospitality asset platform to back Indian Hotels

Impact Analysis

• This will allow Indian Hotels (IHCL) to operate group owned properties on revenue-sharing basis while staying asset-light
• The hotel properties will be directly purchased by Tata Sons and given to IHCL for operating in a more capital-efficient way

15. Swiggy strengthens independence of board with new appointments

Impact Analysis

• Faraz Khalid (Noon CEO) will come in as independent director, while representatives of Softbank and Accel exit the board
• Earlier, Sahil Barua of Delhivery had also exited, paving the way for listed Swiggy to have a more independent board

16. RBI governor suggests; era of free UPI is over and customers must pay for use

Impact Analysis

• Currently, UPI continues to be free for customers, but then the cost is borne by the government, which subsidises banks
• It remains to be seen if funds transfer via UPI will continue to remain popular if charged, or government will finally relent

17. Bajaj Finance reports 30% net profit growth; emerging businesses struggle

Impact Analysis

• New ventures of the group like Bajaj Finserv Health, Bajaj Finserv Direct, and Bajaj Finserv AMC reported ₹142 crore loss
• Markets were disappointed that Bajaj Finance also witnessed a deterioration in the asset quality during the quarter

18. Jane Street gets a temporary reprieve as SEBI allows it to resume trading

Impact Analysis

• Jane Street deposited the entire disgorgement amount of $567 million in an escrow account, to resume trading in India
• However, this is unlikely to influence the final outcome of the case in anyway, as it is under legal process at this point

19. Jio Financial ties up with Allianz AG of Germany for reinsurance business

Impact Analysis

• This is likely to expand the ₹98,000 crore reinsurance market in India and give tough competition to market leader GIC RE
• Allianz AG had just moved out of its insurance JV with Bajaj group and this 50:50 JV is more to their liking too

20. Bank margins take a hit in Q1FY26 as NIMs compress amidst falling rates

Impact Analysis

• When repo rates are cut, the loans get repriced immediately, but deposit rates fall with a lag, leading to NIM compression
• HDFC bank saw NIMs contracting by 11 bps and ICICI Bank also saw a 7 bps contraction in NIMs, on a sequential basis

21. GNG Electronics IPO closes with strong subscription of 147.93 times overall

Impact Analysis

• The QIB portion got subscribed by 266.21 times, while the HNI / NII portion was subscribed 227.67 times at close of the IPO
• The IPO received investor interest to the tune of almost ₹50,000 crore, giving a big boost to the IPO market sentiments

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. Always consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.