Good morning. It's Thursday, and global oil markets had a rough session overnight, which almost always means a rough session for Indian equities and the rupee soon after. It was also a busy day in corporate boardrooms and regulatory offices closer to home.
Here is what is worth your time today.
In today's newsletter: the US and Iran trade direct strikes on tankers and a military base as oil crosses $100 a barrel.
Sensex 74,764.23 ▼ 1.08% |
Nifty 50 23,431.50 ▼ 0.86% |
USD/INR 94.82 ▲ 0.02% |
Brent Crude $100.71 ▲ 3.39% |
Brent's first close above $100 a barrel since July dragged the Sensex down for a third straight session, with rising import costs weighing on both equities and the rupee.
US destroys five Iranian tankers, Iran hits back at a US base in Jordan
US forces sank five Iranian crude carriers in the Gulf of Oman and near Kharg Island, after Iran's Revolutionary Guard fired ballistic missiles at a US warship. Iran retaliated within hours, striking a US-linked base near Al Azraq in eastern Jordan and firing on ships near the Strait of Hormuz.
Jordan's air defences intercepted 18 of the 20 incoming missiles, with the other two landing in unpopulated areas and no casualties reported. Iran separately said it had attacked ten ships attempting to cross the strait, in what officials describe as the biggest single wave of tit-for-tat attacks on shipping since the six-month-old war began.
The exchange sent Brent crude past $100 a barrel for the first time since July, and Indian markets felt it immediately, with the Sensex and Nifty both closing lower for a third straight day.
This is the sharpest escalation yet in a war that has ground on since late February, and it comes just a day after Iran and Oman had floated a plan to reopen a safe shipping route through Hormuz. That proposal now looks dead on arrival, and India, which imports the vast majority of its crude, is exposed to whatever comes next.
Jordan is not a combatant in this war, yet its territory was just used as a target. That widens the circle of countries with a direct stake in how this ends, and raises the odds that other US partners in the region get pulled in next.
Breaking.exe
UPI goes global. At the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said UPI is now live in 11 countries, with over 24 billion transactions processed in August alone, and pushed the industry to expand beyond payments into savings, credit and insurance. |
Uber doubles down. Fleet management startup Carrum Mobility raised $10 million from Uber in a Series B round that values the company at roughly $168 million, Uber's second bet on the startup within a year. |
Quantum money. Bengaluru's QNu Labs raised ₹200 crore in a Series A1 round co-led by the National Quantum Mission, to scale its quantum-safe cybersecurity products for Indian and global customers. |
RentoMojo's runway. Rental platform RentoMojo raised ₹376 crore from anchor investors ahead of its ₹1,256 crore IPO, with domestic mutual funds and insurers taking most of the allocation. |
Pangaea Revisited
Ford's China problem. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Ford to cut its ties with China's CATL and Geely, calling the carmaker's battery and manufacturing partnerships a national security risk. |
Hungary breaks ranks. Budapest expelled 10 Russian diplomats over activities it called unacceptable under the Vienna Convention, a rare rebuke from a government long seen as Moscow's friendliest voice in the European Union. |
Serbia heads to the polls. President Aleksandar Vucic dissolved parliament and called a snap election for October 25, saying he will step down as president to run for prime minister himself. |
Trade war with Canada widens. Trump banned Canadian alcohol, dairy and motorcycles and moved to lock Canada out of roughly $50 billion in US government procurement, after Ottawa's own retaliatory tariffs took effect. |
Also, Also, Also
Meta grilled over ads. India's child rights body summoned Meta India's top officials over Instagram ads allegedly linked to child sexual abuse material, following a BBC investigation into how the ads cleared the platform's review systems. |
Rail expansion cleared. The Cabinet approved ₹20,804 crore of railway multi-tracking projects across nine states, adding nearly 1,200 km of track to ease congestion on high-density corridors. |
Freight corridor complete. Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the final stretch of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor in Gujarat, part of a ₹35,000 crore push that cuts freight transit time between Dadri and Mumbai's port by roughly eight hours. |