DayStarter

Market snapshot

Equities and sectors

Indian equities started the day higher but ended slightly lower. The Nifty 50 opened 34 points up at 24,464 and reached an intraday high near 24,530 around noon. It later gave up its gains during a late sell-off and closed at 24,398.70, down 0.13%. The Sensex closed at 78,180.72, also down 0.13%.

The weakness was broader than the main indices. The Nifty Microcap 250 fell 0.70%, and the Nifty Smallcap 250 fell 0.69%.

Sectoral indices

Sector performance was mixed. Nifty IT was the strongest sector and rose 2.43%. Nifty Consumer Durables rose 0.89%. Realty and Metal were the weakest sectors, with Nifty Realty down 1.58% and Nifty Metal down 1.10%.

F&O stocks

Among F&O stocks, NAUKRI, SWIGGY and JUBLFOOD were the leading gainers. TRENT, KALYANKJIL and COCHINSHIP were the leading losers.

Commodities, currency and bond yields

On MCX, precious metals moved lower. Gold fell 1.03% to ₹1,45,399, and Silver fell 1.89% to ₹2,31,648. Energy contracts moved up, with Crude Oil rising 0.52% to ₹6,585 and Natural Gas rising 0.65% to ₹311.10. Among base metals, Copper fell 0.57%, Zinc fell 0.34%, and Aluminium was flat at ₹332.45.

The rupee strengthened, closing at 94.96 per US dollar, down 47 paise on the day. The move was linked to dollar selling, offshore NDF-market flows and better global risk sentiment after higher Strait of Hormuz traffic and Saudi Arabia's crude price cut.

In bond markets, the India 10-year yield was 6.70, up 0.21%. The US 10-year yield was 4.47, down 0.22%.

Institutional flows

Over the latest five sessions, FIIs were net buyers of ₹538.0 crore, while DIIs were net buyers of ₹6,397.0 crore. On 7 July, FIIs bought a net ₹393.0 crore, while DIIs sold a net ₹383.0 crore.

The macro view

The macro section was led by the weak monsoon. A weak monsoon matters because it can affect crop output, food prices, rural demand, hydroelectric power and insurance claims.

Monsoon, crops and inflation

Monsoon and crop cover: India recorded its driest June in more than a decade, and its fifth driest June since 1901. Monsoon rainfall was 39.8% below the long-period average, or LPA. The India Meteorological Department cut its 2026 southwest monsoon forecast to 90% of the LPA from 92%, citing El Nino conditions. The southwest monsoon provides nearly 70% of India's annual rainfall.

Crop insurance push: With El Nino intensifying, the finance ministry directed insurers to speed up enrolment under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana across 315 vulnerable districts. These districts are spread across Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Bihar, Jharkhand, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

Inflation outlook: CPI inflation was 3.93% in May 2026. CPI tracks prices paid by consumers. In its June policy review, the RBI raised its FY27 inflation projection to 5.1% from 4.6%, assuming crude at $95 per barrel. The repo rate was 5.25%. Food and related items make up about 40% of the CPI basket, so the monsoon has become a larger swing factor for inflation than crude oil. By 6 July, the rainfall deficit had narrowed to 20% of the LPA from a peak of 43%.

Crude, power and public finance

Crude basket reweighted: India changed the mix of its official crude basket. Brent-linked sweet crude rose to 79.40%, from 71.02% in June, 70% in May and 61.02% in April, based on PPAC data. Dubai-Oman sour crude fell to 20.60%, the lowest since the series began in 2001. West Asia's share of India's crude imports fell to around 22% in June, based on Kpler data, from 60-70% before the Iran conflict.

Asia hydropower slump: Combined hydropower generation across Japan, South Korea, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia fell by about 13 average gigawatts year-on-year in June. India and Vietnam accounted for more than 80% of the decline. India's hydropower generation fell 19.5% to 13,361.96 million units in June, based on National Power Portal data.

Panchayat finances: The Centre is set to roll out model Own Source Revenue guidelines for India's 262,000 village panchayats. These guidelines will be aligned with the 16th Finance Commission period, FY27-FY31. In FY22, 42% of gram panchayats collected less than ₹1 lakh in Own Source Revenue.

Skilling and aviation

Skilling scheme: The government approved the pan-India rollout of the ₹60,000-crore PM-SETU scheme across 200 ITI clusters. It also cleared strategic investment plans worth ₹1,237.58 crore.

Regional aviation: The ₹28,840-crore Viksit UDAN programme, launched alongside Jodhpur's new terminal, aims to connect 120 new destinations, develop 100 additional aerodromes and build 200 helipads over 10 years. A parliamentary reply said 663 UDAN routes were operationalized as of 28 February 2026, while 327 were discontinued. A CAG audit found that only 54 of 774 routes, or 7%, awarded in UDAN's first three rounds remained sustainable beyond the three-year support period.

Mint; IMD; RBI; PPAC

Corporate action and earnings

Domestic corporate developments spanned earnings, IPOs, deals, reclassification, cloud, pharma, jobs and trade.

Results and earnings

Info Edge: Shares rose nearly 11% after the company posted a 14.4% year-on-year rise in standalone billings to ₹737 crore for Q1FY27. Naukri.com billings rose 17.5%, and 99acres billings rose 16.6%. NAUKRI was the top F&O gainer, up 12.95%.

Trent: Shares fell more than 10% after the retailer reported a 19% year-on-year rise in standalone June-quarter revenue that was below analyst expectations. The stock fell as much as 12.4% to around ₹2,928. Standalone revenue rose 18.5% year-on-year to ₹5,666 crore, compared with Motilal Oswal's expectation of about 22%.

IPOs, exchanges and contracts

• Cult.fit IPO: Cult.fit filed draft papers with SEBI for an IPO of up to ₹950 crore through a fresh issue. The offer-for-sale could take the total offering to about ₹4,000 crore. Investors including Temasek, Tata Digital, Accel and Kalaari Capital plan to sell up to 178.6 million shares. Cult.fit operates 708 fitness centres across 77 cities and may choose a ₹190-crore pre-IPO placement.
• MCX and BSE: Both stocks extended losses for a fourth straight session. The pressure was linked to the RBI's revised capital exposure rules, effective 1 July, which weighed on trading volumes.
• RITES: Shares rose 7% after the state-run company secured a $35.82 million international contract to supply and commission diesel-electric locomotives.
• Nykaa: The stock touched a 52-week high of ₹319.80 on Monday after its Q1FY27 business update. JM Financial estimated consolidated net revenue growth of around 30%, with fashion up nearly 50%. Store count rose to 324 from 313 in Q4FY26.

Reclassification, cloud and pharma

• AMFI reclassification: AMFI's H2CY26 reclassification was released on 3 July and will apply from 1 August 2026 to 31 January 2027. BSE, Vodafone Idea, Hitachi Energy India, Indian Bank, Indus Towers, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Vedanta Aluminium, Jindal Steel and Billionbrains Garage Ventures move into the large-cap universe. Lodha Developers, Indian Hotels, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, Max Healthcare, LG Electronics India, Dr Reddy's, Hero MotoCorp, Siemens Energy India and Bosch move to mid-cap. BSE gained 46.9% in the first half of 2026.
• Google Cloud: CEO Thomas Kurian said Google Cloud plans more India AI data centres beyond its Visakhapatnam facility. The Visakhapatnam facility was announced on 14 October 2025 as a $15 billion, 1GW investment over five years. Kurian called India Google's largest business in Asia.
• Temasek and Pixxel: Temasek is leading a $100 million round in space-tech startup Pixxel at a $350-400 million valuation, and is expected to invest more than $50 million.
• DXC and Anthropic: DXC Technology, which guided for another 3-5% revenue decline in FY27, tied up with Anthropic in June to use Claude AI in building its products. DXC also helps Anthropic sell and deploy Claude to large enterprises.
• Glenmark: Glenmark's US unit IGI licensed blood-cancer candidate ISB 2001 to AbbVie. The deal includes $700 million upfront and up to $1.225 billion in milestones. The move is part of Glenmark's 10-year pivot towards innovation-led pharma.

Jobs, funds and trade

• IT hiring: At least four firms, Accenture, TCS, Cognizant and Oracle, have delayed onboarding or withdrawn offers for freshers because client demand is uneven. TCS completed the exit of about 12,000 employees by March, and Cognizant is reducing headcount by at least 4,000.
• SBI Funds IPO: SBI Funds Management, with AUM of ₹12.5 trillion as of end-March 2026, will bring ADIA and Singapore's GIC into its $1.2 billion IPO. SBI and Amundi plan to sell a combined 10% stake, valuing the venture at around $12.3 billion.
• Tata Power: Tata Power is targeting ₹1 trillion revenue and ₹10,000 crore profit by 2030. FY26 consolidated revenue was ₹63,681 crore, with net profit of ₹5,212 crore.
• K Raheja IPO: K Raheja Corp delayed a potential $700 million IPO by at least a year after feedback from investment bankers.

EV import bill: India imported auto components worth $25.4 billion in FY26, up 13%, based on ACMA data. This made India a net importer of components as EV sales rose. Exports were $24 billion, up 5%.

• HNIs and SIFs: Along with Category-II AIFs and global investing, high-net-worth investors are increasingly looking at specialised investment funds, or SIFs, and mutual-fund-based PMS. Nirav Karkera of W by Groww said SIFs are aimed at investors seeking risk-optimised strategies. The feature section explains SIFs in more detail.

Upcoming events

The following economic releases were scheduled. These are scheduled release dates, not confirmed outcomes.

Earnings calendar

Mint; Zerodha AfterMarket Report

Global pulse

Global markets

Global markets were mixed. The Dow Jones and FTSE 100 rose, while the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, Nikkei 225, Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng closed lower.

International headlines

• Samsung Electronics: Second-quarter operating profit rose 19 times, helped by the AI-led memory chip boom. The stock still came under pressure, wiping out more than $80 billion in market value, because investors were concerned about slower AI-infrastructure spending by major US tech firms.
• Saudi crude cut: Saudi Arabia cut August crude prices to Asia by $11 per barrel, its sharpest reduction in 26 years. Arab Light was priced $1.50 below the Oman/Dubai average.
• Strait of Hormuz: Crude oil rose to $72.83, up $0.79, after fresh attacks on commercial shipping brought back supply-disruption concerns. Two tankers were hit in the strait: the Qatari LNG carrier Al Rekayyat and a Saudi-flagged crude tanker. The incidents came as crowds mourned Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei.
• Standard Nuclear IPO: The nuclear-fuel company is targeting a valuation of up to $3.55 billion in its US IPO. It aims to raise as much as $383.25 million by selling 18.25 million shares at $18-21 each.
• Shell: Shares rose more than 2% after the company slightly raised its Q2 production outlook. It also warned that Integrated Gas output would fall sharply from Q1 because the Middle East conflict affected Qatari volumes.
• China ICBM test: Monday's submarine-fired ballistic missile test was only China's third publicly known long-range test into the Pacific since 1949. Analysts said it points to a “new normal” of more regular launches.
• World Bank: The World Bank has dropped its formal target of directing 45% of loans to climate-related projects under US pressure, according to The Economist.
• NATO: European leaders will discuss gaps left by the US military pullback at NATO's planned annual summit in Ankara, Turkey, this week.
• SpaceX: SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 after at least six brokers began coverage with buy-equivalent ratings following its $86 billion IPO. Bloomberg Intelligence estimated that index inclusion could lead to at least $5.4 billion in passive buying.

Zerodha; Mint

Management chatter

Verbatim comments from named leaders and policymakers.

Santosh Iyer, MD and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India, on managing the existing vehicle fleet alongside higher ethanol blends:

Sumit Sadana, Chief Business Officer, Micron Technology, on long-term DRAM and NAND bit-demand growth:

Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, quote of the day, on higher ethanol-blended petrol:

Zerodha AfterMarket Report; Mint

Feature: Specialised Investment Funds

A Specialised Investment Fund, or SIF, is a SEBI-regulated investment category created through the SEBI (Mutual Funds) (Third Amendment) Regulations, 2024. It was operationalised through SEBI's circular dated 27 February 2025 and took effect from 1 April 2025.

SIFs are meant to sit between traditional mutual funds and Portfolio Management Services or Alternative Investment Funds. Mutual funds can be accessed with a small amount of money, but their strategies are more limited. PMS and AIF products usually require much larger minimum investments, often ₹50 lakh or ₹1 crore. SIFs try to bridge this gap.

A SIF works under the mutual fund regulatory framework, so it keeps the disclosure, structure and tax treatment of that framework. At the same time, it gives fund managers more flexibility than a normal long-only mutual fund. Each SIF is run under a separate brand identity created by a SEBI-registered AMC, such as Edelweiss's Altiva SIF and SBI's Magnum SIF.

How SIFs work

• Minimum investment: An investor must maintain at least ₹10 lakh across all SIF strategies of a single AMC, measured at the PAN level. This does not include the same AMC's regular mutual fund schemes. Accredited investors, as defined by SEBI, are exempt from this threshold.
• Strategies: SIFs may take both long and short positions using derivatives. There are three broad categories: equity-oriented, debt-oriented and hybrid. These include seven sub-categories such as equity long-short, sectoral long-short, debt long-short, active asset-allocator long-short and hybrid long-short.
• Derivative exposure: Each strategy may hold up to 25% of net assets in unhedged, or naked, derivative positions.
• Structure and liquidity: SIF schemes may be open-ended or interval funds. Redemption frequency can differ by strategy. Redemption notice periods can run up to 15 working days for certain strategies.
• Disclosure: SIFs publish portfolio disclosures every alternate month, while mutual funds disclose portfolios monthly.
• Who can launch one: SEBI allows SIFs only through established mutual funds that meet one of two routes. Route 1, the sound-track-record route, requires at least three years of operation and average AUM of at least ₹10,000 crore over the previous three years. Route 2, the alternate route, requires a CIO with at least 10 years of fund-management experience and average AUM of at least ₹5,000 crore, plus another fund manager with at least three years of experience and average AUM of at least ₹500 crore. Under both routes, there must have been no major SEBI action against the sponsor or AMC in the previous three years.
• Taxation: SIF taxation is aligned with mutual funds. Equity strategies attract 12.5% long-term capital-gains tax and 20% short-term capital-gains tax. Debt-oriented strategies are taxed at the investor's applicable slab rate.

Why SIFs are gaining traction in India

The first SIF was launched in September 2025 by SBI Mutual Fund through the Magnum Hybrid Long Short Fund, after Edelweiss's Altiva SIF received SEBI approval in May 2025. Total SIF assets under management grew from approximately ₹2,010 crore in October 2025 to about ₹9,711 crore by February 2026. That was roughly a 5x increase. Hybrid strategies accounted for around 76% of category assets.

Within months of the framework taking effect, several leading AMCs had launched SIF brands. This has been described as early adoption and growing industry confidence.

The category is still young. Most funds have less than one year of track record. SIFs are positioned for informed investors, HNIs and accredited investors who are comfortable with derivatives, short-selling and tactical allocation. They are not positioned as first-time investor products. SIFs are beginning to appear in HNI portfolios alongside Category-II AIFs and mutual-fund-based PMS.

SEBI; Zerodha Fund House; Tata Mutual Fund; Groww; Edelweiss Mutual Fund; HDFC Sky.

Day at a glance

Closing

Primary sources: Zerodha AfterMarket Report, 7 July 2026 close; Mint, 8 July 2026. This briefing aggregates publicly reported facts from the named sources and is not investment advice.