Good morning. It has been one of the busiest weeks of the quarter for corporate India, with results pouring in from every corner of the market and the numbers telling very different stories depending on which sector you look at. There is a lot to sort through, so let us get straight into it.
In today's newsletter: Assam's flood crisis deepens as the toll crosses 78, Mahindra & Mahindra's blowout quarter, and Hyundai India's rough one.
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Auto, oil and gas, and PSU stocks led the Sensex and Nifty to a second straight day of gains, even as broader mid and small-cap indices slipped and crude eased back from its recent highs.
Assam's flood toll crosses 78 as three lakh people are displaced
The death toll from Assam's monsoon floods has reached 78, with seven districts still submerged and nearly three lakh people affected as the Brahmaputra continues to run over danger levels. Charaideo district is the worst hit, with more than 1.37 lakh people affected there alone.
More than 16,500 displaced residents are sheltering in 71 relief camps, with another 72,000 people being supported through distribution centres. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has assured the state of full central assistance for relief and restoration, even as crop and livestock losses continue to mount across the affected districts.
Assam's crisis is playing out against a strange national backdrop: India's monsoon is running a 16 percent rainfall deficit overall even as entire districts drown. The season has swung between dry spells and cloudbursts rather than delivering steady rain, which is exactly the pattern climate scientists have been warning becomes more common as the planet warms.
Beyond the human toll, more than 21,500 hectares of cropland has been damaged and over 11,000 animals swept away, with another 17,000 livestock affected. For a state where a large share of households depend on farming, that damage will show up in rural incomes long after the water recedes.
Mahindra & Mahindra's profit jumps 34% on strong auto and tractor sales
Mahindra & Mahindra's consolidated net profit rose 33.6 percent to ₹5,454 crore in the June quarter, with revenue up nearly 27 percent as both its automotive and farm equipment businesses fired at once. Automotive revenue climbed 32 percent and farm equipment grew almost 15 percent, though a one-off ₹641 crore gain from an associate-investment sale also padded the headline number.
The stock jumped as much as 4 percent off its intraday low on the back of the results, with SUVs and tractors both benefiting from healthy rural and urban demand this quarter.
Hyundai Motor India's profit falls 35% on export hit and a supplier fire
Not every automaker had Mahindra's quarter. Hyundai Motor India's consolidated net profit fell 35 percent to ₹889 crore, down from ₹1,369 crore a year earlier, as EBITDA margin contracted sharply to 9.3 percent from 13.3 percent. Exports took a hit from the West Asia conflict, and a fire at a key supplier's facility disrupted production, limiting domestic volume growth to just 5.4 percent.
Managing Director Tarun Garg struck an optimistic note for the September quarter, pointing to fully normalised production and an upcoming product pipeline as reasons for a rebound.
Breaking.exe
Swiggy's turnaround quarter. Swiggy's net loss narrowed to ₹791 crore as revenue climbed 37 percent, with its Instamart quick-commerce arm hitting contribution-margin breakeven for the first time. |
Dairy startup funding. D2C dairy brand Sid's Farm raised over ₹81 crore in a Pre-Series B round led by Omnivore and Dodla Dairy, to be used for expanding its supply chain and manufacturing capacity. |
Microsoft's AI bet pays off. Microsoft's quarterly earnings included a $3.2 billion gain from its Anthropic stake, even as its OpenAI investment was marked down about $600 million over the same period. |
Pangaea Revisited
Iran-US escalation. The US launched a heavy wave of strikes on Iranian military targets after Iran fired ballistic missiles at a US air base in Jordan, which Jordanian forces intercepted. |
Poland scrambles jets. A Russian missile landed on Polish territory during an overnight barrage of missiles and drones on Ukraine that killed at least eight civilians, prompting NATO to scramble fighter jets to its airspace. |
Congo's Ebola toll. The Ebola death toll in the Democratic Republic of Congo has passed 1,500 in the fastest-spreading outbreak on record, with the outbreak now also reaching Uganda and France. |
Gaza ceasefire strain. Israeli strikes killed at least three Palestinians, including two children, even as Cairo talks on a broader ceasefire deal were described as entering their most decisive phase. |
Also, Also, Also
Colgate's steady quarter. Colgate-Palmolive India's net profit rose 7 percent to ₹343 crore in the June quarter as sales grew 12 percent year-on-year. |
Property rights clarified. The Supreme Court ruled that property a Christian husband buys in his wife's name remains her exclusive estate, which cannot be treated as part of his estate after her death. |
Global Tiger Day. PM Modi marked Global Tiger Day by highlighting that India is now home to nearly 70 percent of the world's wild tiger population. |
Vijay's box office run. Thalapathy Vijay's farewell film Jana Nayagan has crossed ₹174 crore in India in its first week, despite a sharp weekday slowdown. |