DayStarter

Market snapshot

Equities, sectors, F&O movers, commodities, currency, bonds and institutional flows at the 4 August 2026 close.

Equities: Tuesday close

The Nifty opened 70 points lower at 24,704. The market was adjusting after the previous session’s sharp rise caused by the newly introduced Closing Auction Session, or CAS.

The index quickly fell to around 24,590 to 24,600 and remained weak during the first hour. Selling continued through the morning, taking the Nifty towards 24,500 to 24,520 by the end of the first half.

The index touched an intraday low of around 24,430 at 2 pm. Trading in F&O stocks ended at 3:15 pm with the Nifty at 24,463. The closing auction then lifted the index by more than 150 points to an official close of 24,614.90.

The Nifty 50 ended 0.64% lower, while the Sensex fell 0.27%. The Nifty Smallcap 250 and Nifty Microcap 250 ended slightly higher.

Sector performance

Media was the strongest sector, rising 2.03%. Metal gained 0.91%.

Realty was the weakest sector, falling 2.39%. FMCG, IT and Consumer Durables also declined.

F&O winners and losers

KEI was the strongest F&O stock, rising 9.49%. CG Power gained 6.53%, while SAIL rose 5.18%.

LIC was the biggest loser, falling 8.68%. UPL declined 6.15%, while Prestige Estates and Oberoi Realty fell more than 4%.

Source: Zerodha Technicals.

Commodities

Crude oil futures rose 2.22% to ₹7,815. Aluminium gained 1.29%, copper rose 1.18%, and silver increased 1.06%.

Natural gas was the only commodity in the table to decline, falling 0.87%.

Currency and bond yields

The rupee strengthened slightly, with USDINR falling 0.07% to 95.48.

India’s 10-year bond yield remained around 6.83. The US 10-year yield fell 1.27% to 4.68.

Institutional flows

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of ₹922 crore on 3 August. Domestic institutional investors bought shares worth a net ₹1,571 crore.

Over the five sessions shown below, FIIs bought shares worth a net ₹8,561 crore. DIIs were net buyers of ₹4,629 crore, despite selling ₹1,864 crore on 30 July.

Source: Zerodha AfterMarket Report; NSE.

Macro view

GST collections

India’s gross GST collections rose to more than ₹2.11 trillion in July. This was the second-highest monthly collection since GST began in 2017.

Collections had been ₹1.95 trillion in both May and June.

July GST collections rose 15.4% year-on-year. This was higher than the Union Budget’s assumption of 10% nominal GDP growth for the current financial year.

The Economic Survey linked the improvement in collections to better compliance, technology-based monitoring and the gradual formalisation of the economy.

GST refunds rose 13.1% year-on-year to ₹29,968 crore. Net GST collections increased 15.8%, while GST collected on imports rose 28.8%.

More than 9.6 million taxpayers were registered under state GST administrations as of 31 July 2026. This is in addition to taxpayers administered by the Centre.

Source: Mint.

Taxation and Other Laws Amendment Bill

The government introduced the Taxation and Other Laws Amendment Bill, 2026, in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

The Bill proposes changes to:

• The Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.
• The Income Tax Act, 2025.
• The Finance Act, 2026.

The Bill would restore the tax exemption on dividends received by investors in REITs and InvITs, even when the underlying special purpose vehicle has moved to the new tax system.

Instead, an additional surcharge would be imposed on those special purpose vehicles.

The Bill would also extend the existing tax exemption for foreign companies supplying machinery and tools to Indian electronics manufacturers by 10 years. The total exemption period would increase to 15 years, or until FY41.

It also proposes:

• Removing separate government notification requirements for foreign cloud companies and Indian data centres.
• Allowing leased data-centre models instead of limiting the benefit to companies that own their facilities.

Source: Mint.

Road-project consultant ratings

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways updated its performance-rating system for consultants preparing detailed project reports.

Associate partner firms will now receive 75% of the rating awarded to the lead consultant or joint-venture partner.

Earlier, associate partners received the same score as the lead firm.

Source: Mint.

Data embassies and data-centre expansion

The government is preparing a plan to make India a host for data embassies belonging to foreign governments.

The plan also aims to improve international submarine-cable connectivity and build sovereign cloud infrastructure.

India’s installed data-centre capacity has increased fourfold in five years:

Indian conglomerates, large technology companies and independent operators committed more than $250 billion to new data-centre capacity during the past 12 months.

Development costs in India are estimated at ₹40 crore to ₹55 crore per megawatt.

India moved from 13th position globally in June 2024 to sixth position by June 2026 in the number of operational data centres.

However, the country remains heavily dependent on imported IT hardware.

Source: Mint.

Horticulture clusters

The government is preparing a ₹2,000 crore programme to develop fruit and vegetable clusters within 100 kilometres of major consumption centres.

The proposed Peri-Urban Vegetable Clusters programme will run for five years.

Private companies, farmer-producer organisations and cooperatives will be allowed to participate.

The programme will be introduced in phases. It will begin with state capitals and cities with populations of at least 1.5 million, based on the 2011 Census.

Vegetables and pulses carry a weight of 6.82% in the Consumer Price Index under the CPI 2024 framework. Fruits and nuts have a weight of 3.70%.

Headline inflation rose to an 18-month high of 4.4% in June. This was 50 basis points higher than in May.

Source: Mint.

Cotton Productivity Mission

The government’s ₹5,659 crore Cotton Productivity Mission, also called Kapas Kanti, aims to raise average cotton productivity from 428 kilograms per hectare in FY26 to 755 kilograms per hectare by FY31.

The plan requires productivity to improve by at least 50 kilograms per hectare each year.

The global average is 833 kilograms per hectare.

Raw cotton imports rose 54.6% to $1.86 billion in FY26 from $1.2 billion in FY25.

Cotton production fell from 33.66 million bales in FY23 to an estimated 29.1 million bales in FY26.

The government aims to increase production to 49.8 million bales by FY31.

Source: Mint; Directorate General of Foreign Trade.

Growth forecast

India’s economic growth forecast for 2026-27 was reduced to 6.4%.

The earlier projection made in January 2025 was 6.5%.

India’s forecast remained relatively steady compared with revisions for other countries.

Source: Mint Plain Facts; International Monetary Fund.

Consumer credit

Consumption loans accounted for 51% of all credit among active consumers in March 2026, up from 34% in 2017.

Within consumption credit:

• The share of gold loans rose from 19% to 22%.
• The share of vehicle loans increased from 17% to 18%.

Source: Mint Data Bites; TransUnion CIBIL.

Corporate action and earnings

Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel’s Q1FY27 consolidated net profit rose 37.3% year-on-year to ₹8,167 crore.

Revenue increased 18.4% to ₹58,539 crore.

EBITDA was ₹33,599 crore, while the EBITDA margin was 57.4%.

The company added 14.9 million customers, taking its total subscriber base to 681 million across 15 countries.

Revenue was above the Bloomberg consensus estimate of ₹56,896 crore. Net profit was below the consensus estimate of ₹8,699 crore.

Average revenue per user rose 2.7% from the previous quarter to ₹264 from ₹257.

The wireless subscriber base reached 376.5 million.

Source: Zerodha AfterMarket Report; Mint.

Nykaa

Nykaa’s Q1FY27 net profit rose 3.3 times year-on-year to ₹79.8 crore.

Revenue from operations increased 29% to ₹2,782 crore.

Gross merchandise value rose 34% to ₹5,590 crore.

EBITDA increased 68% to ₹236 crore. The EBITDA margin improved to 8.5% from 6.5% a year earlier.

Source: Zerodha AfterMarket Report; Mint.

Pidilite Industries

Pidilite Industries’ standalone profit after tax rose 27.7% year-on-year to ₹830 crore.

Net sales increased 22.2% to ₹4,237 crore.

The improvement came from broad volume growth and price increases across product categories.

Source: Zerodha AfterMarket Report.

Marico

Marico’s consolidated revenue from operations rose 22.8% year-on-year to ₹3,957 crore.

Net profit increased 27% to ₹652 crore.

Domestic volume growth was 11%, the highest in 20 quarters.

EBITDA rose 25%, while the EBITDA margin increased by 40 basis points to 20.7%.

Source: Mint.

Nestle India

Nestle India’s Q1FY27 revenue from operations rose 25.1% year-on-year to ₹6,378 crore.

Standalone net profit increased 47.9% to ₹975 crore.

The stock fell 4.9% on the NSE to ₹1,455 after the company warned that consumption growth was slowing.

Source: Mint.

Sun Pharma

Sun Pharma’s consolidated Q1FY27 revenue rose 10% year-on-year to ₹15,183 crore.

Its India formulations business grew 16% to ₹5,475 crore.

US formulations revenue fell 9.7% to $427 million.

The consolidated EBITDA margin declined by 133 basis points to 28.1%.

Source: Mint Mark to Market.

Ather Energy

Ather Energy’s operating revenue rose 89% year-on-year to ₹1,217 crore.

Deliveries increased 81% to 83,173 units.

The EBITDA loss, excluding other income, narrowed to ₹33 crore from ₹69.9 crore in Q4FY26.

The stock closed 14% higher.

Source: Mint.

Godrej Properties

Godrej Properties’ sales bookings rose 22% year-on-year to ₹8,651 crore during April to June.

Net profit fell 42% to ₹350 crore.

Total income declined 16.9% to ₹1,345.04 crore because less revenue was recognised under project-completion accounting.

Source: Mint.

Hyundai Motor India

Hyundai Motor India’s domestic sales fell 2% to 584,906 units in FY26.

Exports rose 16% to 190,125 units.

Net profit declined 0.3% to ₹5,432 crore.

The company’s market share fell from 17.36% in FY21 to 12.29% in FY26.

Hyundai plans to introduce 26 new products by 2030.

Source: Mint; FADA.

Larsen & Toubro

L&T Energy Hydrocarbon Offshore secured an “ultramega” EPCIC order worth more than ₹15,000 crore from ADNOC Offshore.

The contract relates to the Umm Shaif Gas Cap, a $6.2 billion offshore gas-development project in Abu Dhabi.

L&T shares closed 0.15% higher at ₹4,006 on the BSE.

Source: Zerodha AfterMarket Report; Mint.

LIC offer for sale

LIC shares fell 8.68% to ₹391.30 as the government’s offer for sale opened for non-retail investors.

The offer included:

• A base offer of 2.5%.
• A greenshoe option of 4%.
• A floor price of ₹382 per share.

The floor price was 11% below the previous close of ₹428.50.

Institutional investors bid for more than 94.45 crore shares at an indicative price of ₹383.84 per share. The bids were worth around ₹36,400 crore.

The offer was subscribed 3.32 times its base size by institutional investors.

Source: Zerodha AfterMarket Report; Mint; Department of Investment and Public Asset Management.

Cello World

Bain Capital is in discussions to acquire a controlling stake in Cello World.

The promoters currently own 75% of the company.

The proposed deal is valued at more than ₹3,000 crore. Kotak’s investment-banking division is advising the promoters.

Cello World shares had fallen 36.4% since the beginning of the year. The stock closed at ₹344.10 on the NSE on Monday.

India’s consumerware market was valued at $3.38 billion in 2025. It is expected to reach around $5.62 billion over the next four years.

Source: Mint; Ambit.

Mahanadi Coalfields IPO

Mahanadi Coalfields, a subsidiary of Coal India, appointed five merchant bankers for its proposed IPO:

• SBI Capital Markets.
• Axis Capital.
• IIFL Capital Services.
• IDBI Capital Markets.
• Bank of Baroda Capital Markets.

The IPO may be worth around ₹10,000 crore and would consist entirely of an offer for sale.

Source: Mint.

Adani Power block deal

Adani Group promoter entity Ardour Investment Holding sold 12,48,00,000 Adani Power shares.

The shares represented a 0.65% stake.

They were sold at an average price of ₹210.50 per share for ₹2,627.04 crore.

Adani Infra India bought the same number of shares at the same price.

Source: Mint; NSE block-deal data.

Adani capital expenditure and EPC companies

Adani Group spent ₹1.53 trillion, or $16 billion, on capital expenditure in FY26.

This spending is expected to create business for smaller listed engineering, procurement and construction companies.

In FY26:

• PSP Projects received Adani Group orders worth ₹9,286.25 crore. These represented 80% of its total orders.
• Diamond Power Infrastructure received orders worth ₹2,780 crore. These represented 85% of its total orders.

Source: Mint; Company disclosures.

HCLTech restructuring

HCLTech reorganised its technology-services business around industry verticals.

The new structure replaces parts of its earlier geography-based model.

This was the company’s largest leadership restructuring in three years.

HCLTech expects FY27 revenue growth of 1% to 4% in constant currency.

The company ended FY26 with revenue of $14.66 billion, up 6% year-on-year.

Source: Mint.

Apple India sales

Apple’s annual sales in India crossed $10 billion for the first time during the financial year ended March 2026.

The growth came from double-digit revenue expansion and demand for premium devices.

Source: Zerodha AfterMarket Report.

Dabur and FSSAI action

Dabur shares fell after the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India restricted the sale of several products carrying misleading “100%” claims.

The regulator said claims such as “100% Natural”, “100% Pure” and “100% Organic” are unclear, cannot be verified and may mislead consumers.

Dabur shares closed 3.79% lower at ₹409.65.

Source: Zerodha AfterMarket Report.

Fly91 expansion

Regional airline Fly91 plans to increase its fleet from six ATR aircraft to more than 50 over the next five years.

The airline also aims to serve at least 50 destinations.

Fly91 currently operates around 280 flights a week. Around 98 of these flights are under the regional connectivity scheme.

The company has raised ₹250 crore in equity.

It aims to reach cash break-even by the end of FY27 and operating profitability in FY28.

Source: Mint.

Regulation and market structure

Closing auction session

SEBI asked brokers to encourage more retail participation in the newly introduced closing auction session.

The request came amid concerns about sharp price movements and low liquidity during the final minutes of trading.

On Tuesday, the Nifty 50 was at 24,463.45 when continuous trading ended at 3:15 pm. The closing auction lifted the index by 151.45 points by 3:35 pm.

The Sensex rose 104.39 points during the same period.

The value of trades during the auction was:

Source: Mint.

RBI guidelines for artificial intelligence

The Reserve Bank of India is considering detailed guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence by regulated financial institutions.

Most RBI departments are working with the Department of Regulation on the proposed rules.

An email sent to the RBI on the matter remained unanswered.

Source: Mint.

REIT and InvIT fundraising

SEBI proposed allowing Real Estate Investment Trusts and Infrastructure Investment Trusts to raise money from foreign investors through depository receipts.

The proposal would provide these investment vehicles with wider access to global capital.

Source: Mint.

Promoter pledges

A review of 4,384 companies listed on the BSE found that 34 companies had more than 90% of promoter holdings pledged at the end of Q1.

This was higher than:

• 30 companies at the end of March.
• 32 companies a year earlier.

Source: Mint; Ace Equity.

Domestic institutional ownership

Domestic institutional investors owned a record 21% of the Nifty 500 in June.

They increased exposure in 14 of 24 sectors, reduced exposure in six sectors and left exposure unchanged in four sectors.

Source: Mint; Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Specialised investment funds

Assets managed by specialised investment funds rose almost nine times to ₹17,857.77 crore across 30 schemes.

The first SIF was launched in October 2025.

Portfolio management service assets reached ₹8.9 trillion by June. They grew only 4% between October 2025 and June 2026.

Source: Mint; Association of Mutual Funds in India.

Upcoming events

Economic calendar: 5 August 2026

Earnings calendar: 5 August 2026

Global pulse

Global markets

Most major global markets ended higher.

The S&P 500 rose 1.47%, while the Dow Jones gained 1.32%. The Nasdaq 100 increased 0.72%.

The Hang Seng was the only major index in the table to decline, falling 0.60%.

Oil and energy

Brent crude fell more than 3% to below $78 per barrel.

Prices had risen earlier, but hopes of renewed negotiations between the US and Iran reduced concern about possible supply disruptions.

Qatar said a draft proposal to restart negotiations had been circulated between the parties. No agreement had been reached.

US crude oil exports fell to 3.66 million barrels per day in July, their lowest level in eight months.

A temporary US-Iran peace agreement restored some Middle Eastern oil supplies.

Exports from the US to Asia fell sharply. Asia’s share of US crude exports declined from 52% in June to 40% in July.

Saudi Aramco’s Q2 net profit rose 44% year-on-year to 122.6 billion Saudi riyals, or $32.7 billion.

The company had reported profit of 85 billion riyals a year earlier.

Higher crude oil prices during the Middle East conflict helped earnings.

Source: Zerodha AfterMarket Report.

US markets and companies

US stock futures reached record levels.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.4% to a new record. Dow futures gained 600 points and crossed 53,800 for the first time.

Investors were looking to company earnings for signs that the AI-driven rally remained strong.

Amazon crossed $3 trillion in market value for the first time.

The rise followed strong earnings and growing confidence that the AI boom was increasing demand for Amazon Web Services.

AstraZeneca shares fell 6.4% after reports that it had discussed a merger with Bristol Myers Squibb.

A deal would create a company with a combined market value of nearly $400 billion.

Source: Zerodha AfterMarket Report.

Strait of Hormuz negotiations

Iran is considering allowing European countries to remove mines from the Strait of Hormuz.

This could form part of a wider agreement to normalise shipping through the waterway.

Qatar and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent both said some form of agreement was close.

Qatar said a draft proposal to restart negotiations between Washington and Tehran had been prepared and shared with both sides.

Source: Bloomberg via Mint.

Saudi Arabia and the Houthis

Saudi Arabia is trying to prevent another conflict with Houthi militants through talks mediated by Oman.

At the same time, the country is preparing possible military responses.

Saudi Arabia is trying to protect Red Sea ports, which are handling most of its oil exports while the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed.

Source: Bloomberg via Mint.

Japan’s currency intervention funding

Japan plans to use the US Federal Reserve’s Foreign and International Monetary Authorities Repo Facility to finance currency intervention.

This came one day after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent encouraged the Federal Reserve to increase the facility’s limit of $60 billion for each counterparty.

Japan held around $1.1 trillion in US Treasury securities at the end of May.

Source: The Wall Street Journal via Mint.

New US tariffs

The US introduced another round of tariffs under Section 301 forced-labour investigations.

Additional duties of 10% or 12.5% were imposed on imports from 60 trading partners.

India is in the lower 10% tariff category.

Source: Mint Plain Facts.

Global growth

The IMF reduced its 2026 growth forecast for West Asia to 0.7%.

The earlier forecast made in January 2026 was 3.9%.

This was the largest downward revision among all regions tracked by the IMF.

Global economic growth is expected to be 3% in 2026. This is below the 3.3% forecast made in January 2025 and January 2026.

Source: Mint Plain Facts; International Monetary Fund.

China’s economy

China’s economy grew 4.3% in the second quarter of 2026.

This was the weakest quarterly growth since late 2022 and lower than the 5% growth recorded in Q1.

The result was also below China’s annual growth target of 4.5% to 5%.

Source: Mint; National Bureau of Statistics of China.

Renewable electricity overtakes coal

Wind, solar, hydropower and bioenergy together produced 34% of global electricity in 2025.

Coal generated 33%.

This was the first time renewable sources produced more electricity than coal.

Coal’s share had been 38% in 2000.

Source: Mint; Pew Research Center; Ember.

Low water levels in Europe

Drought reduced water levels in parts of the Danube and Rhine rivers.

Water depth at Kaub, west of Frankfurt, fell to as low as 25 centimetres on Friday.

ING’s global head of macro research said German GDP may grow only 0.5% this year if the disruption continues.

The earlier forecast was 0.8%.

Source: The Wall Street Journal via Mint.

China’s AI models

New AI models from China are narrowing the performance gap with Silicon Valley.

A complex real-world task cost $0.03 using DeepSeek V4 Flash.

The same task cost $3.15 using Claude Fable 5.

The comparison came from benchmark tests by Artificial Analysis, an independent evaluator.

Source: Mint; Artificial Analysis.

Management commentary

“If the strait were open today, it would take up to 18 months at an average rate of 2.1 million barrels a day to replenish depleted inventories.”

Amin H. Nasser
CEO, Saudi Aramco
On the scale of the supply shock

“Beyond refining, current trade flows through the Strait of Hormuz are at a tenth of pre-conflict levels, and the world will continue to lose more than 100 million barrels for each week the strait is closed.”

Amin H. Nasser
CEO, Saudi Aramco

“We certainly have no intention of making any money from this business over the next 5 years, and our assumption is that this business has to break even by FY31. We would be happy if it gets there.”

Abhiraj Singh Bhal
CEO and co-founder, Urban Company
On InstaHelp

“We delivered yet another quarter of strong performance, supported by the resilience of our diversified portfolio and sharp execution across businesses. India Mobile achieved sequential growth of 3.8%, driven by continued portfolio mix improvement.”

Gopal Vittal
Executive vice chairman, Bharti Airtel

“This prestigious award from Adnoc reflects the trust our clients place in L&T’s engineering excellence, project execution capabilities and unwavering commitment to delivering complex energy infrastructure projects safely and on schedule.”

S.N. Subrahmanyan
Chairman and managing director, Larsen & Toubro
On the Umm Shaif Gas Cap contract

“AI has thrown developing economies a lifeline, and they should seize it. They do not need large models or big data centres to reap its benefits.”

Indermit Gill
Chief economist, World Bank

The US tariff timeline for India

Six rates, three laws and sixteen months

The headline US tariff on Indian goods changed at least six times between January 2025 and July 2026.

It moved from 26% to 10%, then to 25%, 50%, 18% and back to 10%.

The legal basis also changed. The tariffs moved from reciprocal duties under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to a temporary surcharge under Section 122 and then to a Section 301 forced-labour tariff.

These are the headline country-level tariffs applied to India on each date.

Separate Section 232 duties on steel, aluminium and automotive parts apply independently.

Phase one: From 26% to 50%

The US imposed a 26% reciprocal tariff on several Indian imports on 2 April 2025 as part of its “Liberation Day” measures.

The tariff was paused for 90 days on 10 April, but a general 10% duty remained on US imports.

On 31 July 2025, President Trump announced a 25% tariff on all Indian goods. He also said an additional penalty would be imposed if India continued buying Russian oil.

US Customs and Border Protection issued a public notice on 26 August implementing an additional 25% duty under an executive order signed on 6 August.

The combined tariff reached 50% on 27 August 2025.

At that point, India faced the highest tariff among US trading partners.

Source: Reuters; News on AIR; US Customs and Border Protection.

Impact on Indian exports

September 2025 was the first full month under the 50% tariff.

India’s merchandise exports to the US fell 11.93% year-on-year to $5.46 billion.

Exports fell again in October, declining 8.58% year-on-year to $6.3 billion.

Imports from the US rose 13.89% to $4.46 billion in October.

The Global Trade Research Initiative calculated that shipments to the US fell 37.5% over four months, from $8.8 billion in May 2025 to $5.5 billion in September 2025.

September alone recorded a 20.3% month-on-month decline.

India’s total merchandise exports fell 11.8% year-on-year to $34.38 billion in October 2025.

The decline affected petroleum products, gems and jewellery, and core sectors.

Source: Commerce Ministry data via PTI; GTRI.

Phase two: The interim India-US deal

On 2 February 2026, President Trump said the US and India had agreed to a trade deal.

The agreement reduced the reciprocal tariff from 25% to 18%.

It also removed the separate 25% penalty linked to India’s purchases of Russian oil.

A White House official confirmed that the punitive duty was being removed.

The White House said the President signed an executive order removing the additional 25% tariff after India committed to stop buying Russian oil.

The joint statement followed a call between the leaders of the two countries and created a framework for an interim reciprocal-trade agreement.

The executive order was signed on 6 February and took effect on 7 February.

India agreed to reduce or remove tariffs on all US industrial goods and a wide range of US food and agricultural products.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said the 50% tariff had been reduced to 18%.

He also said the following Indian products would attract zero duty in the US:

• Spices
• Tea
• Coffee
• Cashew nuts
• Avocado
• Banana
• Mango
• Kiwi
• Papaya

Source: Reuters; White House; KPMG; News on AIR.

Phase three: The US Supreme Court ruling

On 20 February 2026, 18 days after the trade deal was announced, the US Supreme Court ruled in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not give the President authority to impose tariffs.

Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinion.

The court ruled 6 to 3 and invalidated all tariffs based on IEEPA, including country-specific reciprocal tariffs.

The court did not decide whether tariffs already collected should be refunded.

India’s negotiated 18% tariff was based on IEEPA, so it was also invalidated.

The administration then used Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to introduce a temporary 10% surcharge on almost all imports.

The surcharge took effect on 24 February 2026.

Under the law’s 150-day limit, it was scheduled to expire on 24 July 2026.

The White House said the Section 122 tariff replaced the earlier IEEPA tariff. It did not apply on top of it.

India’s tariff therefore temporarily fell to 10%.

On 7 May 2026, the US Court of International Trade invalidated the Section 122 surcharge in Oregon v. United States and Burlap and Barrel, Inc. v. United States.

The court said the proclamation did not identify the type of balance-of-payments deficit required under the law.

However, relief was limited to the named plaintiffs. The government appealed, and tariff collection continued.

Source: Congressional Research Service; Duane Morris; PwC Canada; White House.

Current position: Section 301 tariff

The Section 122 surcharge expired at 12:01 am Eastern Time on 24 July 2026.

At the same time, new Section 301 tariffs linked to forced-labour investigations took effect.

The final action announced by the Office of the US Trade Representative on 23 July imposed additional duties of either 10% or 12.5% on 60 trading partners.

These economies represented 99.4% of US imports.

A 10% tariff applies to economies that already have a forced-labour import ban or have committed to introducing one.

A 12.5% tariff applies to the remaining economies.

India is in the 10% group, along with:

• Argentina
• Bangladesh
• Cambodia
• Canada
• Indonesia
• Malaysia
• Mexico
• Pakistan
• Sri Lanka
• United Kingdom

India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry said the final 10% duty was lower than the 12.5% rate proposed on 2 June 2026.

The ministry credited written submissions, consultations and participation in public hearings for the reduction.

Around 45% of India’s exports to the US remain outside the additional 10% tariff.

Products excluded from the additional tariff include:

• Generic medicines.
• Smartphones.
• Certain other specified goods.
• Products already covered by separate Section 232 duties on steel, aluminium and automotive parts.

The remaining 55% of exports face the additional 10% duty.

India remains in talks with the US for an early conclusion of the India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement.

Source: USTR; Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

What the 10% headline rate does not show

Section 301 does not contain a legal ceiling on tariff rates or an automatic expiry date.

Unlike Section 122, it requires a formal investigation before tariffs can be imposed.

The US administration conducted a four-month investigation covering 60 economies before introducing the new duties.

The Section 301 duty is an additional ad valorem tariff. This means it is calculated as a percentage of the value of the imported goods.

The June proposal applied the 10% and 12.5% tariffs on top of existing most-favoured-nation duties.

The final action introduced a “net of MFN” adjustment for major trading partners. This means some countries’ additional tariffs are reduced by the standard MFN tariff already applied.

India shares the 10% group with several competing exporters, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Demand from the US has not fully recovered.

India’s merchandise exports rose 15.54% year-on-year to $40.41 billion in June 2026.

However, exports to the US grew only slightly and then declined marginally.

During the same month:

• Exports to Singapore rose 48.91%.
• Exports to South Africa rose 114.04%.
• Exports to China rose 31.49%.

Source: Congressional Research Service; Commerce Ministry data.