Good morning. We are in the thick of India's June-quarter earnings season, and the numbers landing this week tell two very different stories about the economy depending on which corner of it you are looking at. Here is what is worth your time today.
In today's newsletter: state refiners' brutal quarter, Nestle's rare growth spurt, and Blinkit's swing to the black.
Markets at a Glance
Closing levels · 2026-07-22
Sensex 76,755.05 -715.06 (-0.92%) |
Nifty 50 23,996.25 -191.45 (-0.79%) |
USD/INR 96.59 UP from 96.25 |
Brent Crude $94.77 +$3.76 (+4.13%) |
Oil is doing the heavy lifting again, and it is the same pressure showing up in the refiners' results below. Third straight losing session for both indices, with banks and pharma leading the retreat while FMCG and autos held up.
State oil refiners HPCL and BPCL swing to steep June-quarter losses
State-run refiners had a brutal quarter. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation posted its first quarterly loss since early FY23, with a net loss of ₹12,264 crore for the quarter ended June, reversing a ₹4,110 crore profit a year earlier, as crude prices spiked during the West Asia crisis.
Bharat Petroleum fared little better, slipping to a net loss of nearly ₹3,962 crore against a year-ago profit of over ₹6,123 crore, even as revenue at both companies grew by double digits on the back of higher oil prices.
Neither company raised retail petrol and diesel prices through the quarter, effectively absorbing the hit as Brent crude touched multi-month highs after fresh strikes disrupted West Asian supply routes.
If crude stays elevated, the government faces a choice between letting oil marketing companies keep bleeding, raising retail fuel prices ahead of festive-season demand, or stepping in with support. Any of those eventually shows up either in the fiscal math or in the average commuter's fuel bill.
The real story is not just the size of the loss, it is that pump prices did not move at all through the quarter. That is a deliberate choice to protect consumers and inflation numbers at the refiners' expense, and it cannot hold indefinitely if crude stays this high.
Nestle India's profit jumps 48% as premium and exports pay off
Not every consumer company is struggling. Nestle India's net profit for the June quarter rose 48% year-on-year to ₹958.68 crore, while revenue climbed 25% to ₹6,363 crore.
Exports grew even faster, up 35.6%, while the company held its EBITDA margin at a healthy 24.2% despite raising advertising spend by more than 40% to defend market share as quick commerce reshapes how urban India buys packaged food.
Eternal's profit nearly quadruples as Blinkit turns a corner
Zomato and Blinkit's parent Eternal reported a consolidated net profit of ₹92 crore for the June quarter, up 268% from a year earlier, even though it missed analyst estimates of roughly ₹258 crore.
Revenue surged 182% to ₹20,211 crore, driven largely by Blinkit, which swung from a heavy loss a year ago to a meaningful profit as the quick-commerce arm kept adding stores and orders without bleeding as much cash to get there.
Breaking.exe
NBFC profit surge. IIFL Finance's consolidated net profit rose 189% year-on-year in the June quarter, powered by a recovering gold-loan book and steady growth across its home and MSME lending lines. |
Telecom margins squeezed. Tata Communications' net profit fell 29% to ₹134 crore even as revenue grew 10% to ₹6,583 crore, with the company citing a one-time cost tied to how India's new labour codes define "wages". |
Cooling products click. A hot summer paid off for Orient Electric, whose profit jumped 80% to ₹31.49 crore on strong demand for fans and cooling appliances, even after booking a one-time charge from consolidating its factories. |
Pangaea Revisited
US tariff threat widens. The Trump administration is preparing tariffs on roughly 60 trading partners, including China, the UK and the EU, reviving a trade fight months after the Supreme Court struck down its earlier emergency-powers tariffs. |
Bombing case reopened. India's Supreme Court ordered a fresh trial for a death-row convict in the 1996 Samleti bus bombing that killed 14 people, ruling he never had effective legal representation the first time around. |
Pakistan's rating climbs. S&P Global upgraded Pakistan's sovereign credit rating to 'B', its highest level in nine years, citing IMF-backed reforms and a rebuilding of foreign exchange reserves. |
Also, Also, Also
Whisky sales click. United Spirits' consolidated profit rose 11% to ₹463 crore, helped by double-digit growth in its premium "Prestige & Above" liquor portfolio. |
PSU bank turnaround. UCO Bank's profit climbed on a 69% jump in non-interest income and improving asset quality, with gross bad loans easing to 2.08% of the book. |
Holiday business stumbles. Mahindra Holidays & Resorts swung to an ₹8.56 crore loss for the quarter, hurt by expansion costs at home and geopolitical headwinds hitting its international operations. |
Mutual fund windfall. Nippon Life India Asset Management's quarterly profit jumped 27%, extending a broader rally for the country's asset managers even as the market itself had a rough few sessions. |