Good morning. It is peak earnings season, and results are landing from across India Inc through the week, giving a real time read on how the economy is actually holding up beyond the headline numbers. The monsoon continues to pour over large parts of the country, with more heavy rain in the forecast over the next few days. Here is what is worth your time today.
In today's newsletter: Vodafone Idea's loss narrows sharply, Info Edge rides a hiring boom, and Bharat Forge and Gland Pharma post a Q1 turnaround.
Sensex 78,542.44 UP 43.27 (0.06%) |
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USD/INR 95.30 DOWN 13 paise |
Brent Crude $87.72 UP ~5% |
Sensex and Nifty eked out marginal gains as Q1 earnings kept stock-pickers busy, even as a jump in Brent crude toward 88 dollars a barrel and a weaker rupee kept the broader mood cautious.
Vodafone Idea narrows loss 43%, adds subscribers for the first time since its 2018 merger
India's most indebted telecom operator posted a consolidated net loss of ₹3,754 crore for the June quarter, down 43 percent from ₹6,608 crore a year earlier. Revenue rose 6 percent year on year to ₹11,689 crore, and average revenue per user climbed to ₹195.
The number that matters most sits below the headline loss figure: Vi added net subscribers for the first time since the Vodafone-Idea merger in 2018, breaking a seven year run of losing users every single quarter to Jio and Airtel. EBITDA rose 9.1 percent to ₹5,034 crore.
Vi's survival is really a competition question. If it collapses, India is left with a two-player telecom market in Jio and Airtel, which removes the pricing pressure that has kept mobile bills among the cheapest in the world. The government, having converted a large chunk of Vi's dues into equity, is now its largest shareholder, effectively making this a bet with public money.
Everyone is reading the headline loss number, but the subscriber count is the more telling data point. Years of network under-investment sent users fleeing to rivals; a genuine, if small, net addition suggests the recent spending on 4G and 5G expansion may finally be paying off.
Naukri operator Info Edge posts a 51% profit jump as India's hiring engine hums
Info Edge, the parent of recruitment platform Naukri, reported consolidated net profit up 51 percent year on year to ₹445.7 crore for the June quarter, from ₹295.9 crore a year earlier. Revenue grew 11.4 percent to ₹880.7 crore, with the EBITDA margin edging up to 38.7 percent.
The recruitment business remains the company's profit engine, and the billing growth behind it is a useful, less-noisy proxy for white collar hiring activity than the official jobs data India otherwise struggles to measure well.
Bharat Forge's loss narrows sharply, Gland Pharma profit jumps as two beaten-down sectors turn a corner
Auto components maker Bharat Forge narrowed its consolidated net loss to ₹89.88 crore, from ₹283.87 crore a year ago, as revenue climbed 18.71 percent to ₹4,639.94 crore on stronger export and defence-forgings demand.
Drugmaker Gland Pharma had a stronger quarter still, with consolidated net profit up 47.44 percent year on year to ₹317 crore and revenue up 19.55 percent to ₹1,800 crore, a sign that India's contract manufacturing pharma bets are starting to pay off after a rough stretch for the sector.
Breaking.exe
Microsoft's Nvidia workaround. Microsoft is preparing to unveil its next-generation Maia 300 AI chip this fall and is seeking capacity for over a million units, a push to cut its costly reliance on Nvidia that sent Nvidia shares lower. |
AI hacking scrutiny. OpenAI and Anthropic are under pressure to explain how tools tied to a small Israeli startup were linked to rogue AI-powered hacking attempts on their own systems and Meta's, raising fresh questions about AI-model security. |
Bosch profit falls. Auto-tech and mobility major Bosch reported a 36.7 percent drop in consolidated net profit to ₹706.1 crore for the June quarter, a reminder that margin pressure in auto components has not fully eased. |
Pangaea Revisited
Hormuz talks stall. Iran shook up its military leadership as talks over reopening the Strait of Hormuz remained stalled, with Tehran again rejecting direct negotiations with Washington, keeping oil markets on edge. |
Trump's vaccine order. Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for childhood vaccines including the MMR shot to be split into separate visits, a move public health experts warn could dent immunisation coverage. |
Ukraine's deep strike. Ukrainian drones hit an oil refinery more than 1,000 kilometres inside Russia in Tatarstan, killing at least 13 people, one of the deadliest strikes of the war as Kyiv keeps targeting Russian refining capacity. |
Moldova recalls envoy. Moldova recalled its ambassador from Moscow after a drone crashed near its border with Ukraine, calling it a grave violation of its sovereignty as airspace intrusions in the region grow more frequent. |
Also, Also, Also
Heavy rain alert. The India Meteorological Department flagged isolated extremely heavy rainfall over East Rajasthan and West Madhya Pradesh, with Delhi and the wider NCR under red and yellow alerts amid intense monsoon activity. |
SBI slips on profit-booking. SBI shares fell over 1 percent even after India's largest lender beat estimates with a 10 percent jump in quarterly profit to ₹21,121 crore, as investors booked gains after a three-day rally. |
Copper profit surges. State-run Hindustan Copper's net profit more than doubled to ₹352 crore, up 162 percent year on year, on higher output and stronger prices. |
Wockhardt turns a profit. Drugmaker Wockhardt swung to a consolidated profit of ₹107 crore, from a loss a year earlier, as revenue grew 26 percent to ₹929 crore. |