Will India get more airlines? ✈️

Infosys names a new CEO, Tesla bets on robots, and banking gets an AI boost.

🗓️ Morning, folks and Happy Fridayyyy! ☀️

A rough Thursday for Dalal Street.

The market extended its losing streak to a fourth straight session, with the Nifty falling 0.5% and the Sensex slipping 0.4%.

Sectorally, pharma, realty and healthcare stocks were among the major laggards, while FMCG and auto stocks remained relatively resilient.

💡 Spotlight: Adani sets its eyes on the skies ✈️

India’s aviation market could soon get a powerful new player.

The Adani Group has asked the government to relax rules that stop certain airport operators from owning airlines.

If approved, the move could allow Adani to launch its own airline and challenge the dominance of IndiGo and Air India.

Why it matters: Adani already operates eight airports and is investing $11 billion to expand its airport business, along with ₹20,000 crore to develop airport cities across six locations.

Let’s hit it! 💪🏻

1 Big Thing: Infosys results bring cautious optimism and a new CEO 👨‍💻

Before we get into the numbers, Infosys announced a major leadership change. The company named Ashiss Kumar Dash as its CEO-designate, succeeding current CEO Salil Parekh.

Now, onto the quarterly results.

The numbers 📊

Net profit: up 12.3% at ₹7,769 crore vs ₹6,921 crore (YoY). Down 8.6% vs ₹8,501 crore (QoQ).
Revenue: up 14% at ₹48,211 crore vs ₹42,279 crore (YoY). Up 3.9% vs ₹46,402 crore (QoQ).
EBIT margin: at 21.1%, up 0.3 percentage points (YoY) and 0.1 percentage points QoQ.
In constant currency (CC) terms, revenue grew 2.4% YoY and 1% QoQ.

Infosys earns in foreign currencies like the US dollar. Constant currency removes the impact of changing exchange rates to show the company’s real business growth.

Large deals keep coming: Infosys signed $3.6 billion worth of large deals during Q1FY27, up from $3.2 billion in the previous quarter.

According to Salil Parekh, demand for the company’s AI platform, Infosys Topaz, is helping convert AI projects into actual business and driving more large deal wins.

Guidance gets a small trim: Infosys slightly lowered its FY27 revenue growth guidance to 1.5-3% in constant currency from the earlier 1.5-3.5% range. However, it maintained its operating margin guidance of 20-22%.

After the results, Infosys’ American Depository Receipt (ADR) fell nearly 5% in pre-market trading in New York.

An ADR is a way for US investors to buy shares of foreign companies like Infosys on American stock exchanges.

While we are on earnings 💰,

IndiGo slipped into a loss this quarter despite reporting strong revenue growth. The airline blamed soaring jet fuel prices, a weaker rupee and disruptions caused by the Middle East conflict for the weak profitability.

The numbers 📊

Net profit: net loss of ₹382 crore vs net profit of ₹2,161 crore (YoY)
Revenue: up 20% at ₹24,584 crore vs ₹20,496 crore (YoY)
Total expenses: up 35.1% to ₹25,853 crore.
Aircraft fuel expense: jumped 86% to ₹10,830 crore vs ₹5,833 crore.
Foreign exchange loss: improved to ₹83 crore from ₹147 crore.

Foreign exchange loss is the loss a company incurs when changes in currency values make its overseas payments or earnings more expensive.

Despite the loss, IndiGo continued to carry more passengers.

Passengers flown: up 0.7% to 31.3 million.
Capacity: up 2.9% to 43.5 billion.

Managing Director Rahul Bhatia said healthy passenger demand and better ticket prices supported revenue, but higher fuel costs and operational challenges weighed heavily on profits.

2. Google shines in Q2⚡️

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, reported better-than-expected Q2 earnings, driven by strong AI demand. Revenue grew 24% YoY, while its cloud business surged 82%, fuelled by growing demand for AI infrastructure and AI-powered solutions.

By the numbers:

Adjusted earnings per share: $2.85 vs $2.89 expected (LSEG)
Revenue: $119.8 billion vs $116.93 billion expected (LSEG)

Alphabet also raised its capex guidance to $195-205 billion as it continues investing heavily in AI infrastructure.

Search revenue grew 17%, driven by the adoption of AI Overviews and AI Mode, while YouTube Ads revenue increased 13%.

Another major boost came from Alphabet’s ‘Other Income’ segment, which includes gains from its investments in companies like Anthropic and SpaceX.

This contributed $99 billion during the quarter. However, the company also reported its first-ever negative free cash flow, reflecting record spending on AI infrastructure.

One interesting tidbit: Sundar Pichai said Search usage hit an all-time high during this year’s FIFA World Cup, highlighting how major global events continue to drive engagement across Google’s platforms.

More on earnings 💸,

Tesla reported a weak set of Q2 earnings, even though revenue came in ahead of Wall Street estimates.

By the numbers:

Adjusted earnings per share: 33 cents vs. 51 cents expected
Revenue: $28.24 billion vs. $25.71 billion expected

Revenue rose 26% YoY, driven by record vehicle deliveries. However, net income fell 5% to $1.11 billion, compared with $1.17 billion in the same quarter last year.

What’s next for Tesla: Tesla is ramping up production of its autonomous Cybercab, while also retooling its Fremont factory to manufacture Optimus, its humanoid robot.

3. $40 million in the kitty 💰

BusinessNext has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by ServiceNow Ventures, the investment arm of US cloud software giant ServiceNow.

BusinessNext builds AI-powered software that helps banks manage customers, automate operations, process loans and improve sales and customer service.

Its customer list already includes some of India’s biggest financial institutions, such as HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

The deets: the funding values the Noida-based startup at $700 million, nearly four times its last reported valuation of $181 million in 2021.

According to reports, US-based ServiceNow has acquired around a 5% stake in the company as part of the deal.

Companies earn billions from the ads you watched, skipped and scrolled past. Meta topped the list after showing users 12% more ads. Even their advertisers paid them 9% more.

Netflix wants to double its ad revenue to about $3 billion in 2026, as it continues to expand AI-powered advertising tools and programmatic capabilities.

‘Just one more reel’ is turning out to be a great business model for these companies. The ads interrupting your videos are worth billions.

Full Story Here

5. Stocks that kept us interested 🚀

What went up ⬆️

✅ NTPC Green Energy rose over 6% after the company reported a 38% year-on-year increase in Q1FY27 consolidated net profit.

⚡️ PTC Industries gained after it secured a DRDO order to develop a titanium cradle for India’s light tank, expanding into design-led defence manufacturing.

🚗 Samvardhana Motherson shares went up over 1% after strong June car sales in Europe boosted sentiment for auto component makers with regional exposure.

🎥 PVR Inox shares jumped over 1% after the multiplex operator returned to profit in the June quarter, boosting investor sentiment.

🚀 Ujjivan Small Finance Bank zoomed 5% after the lender raised its FY27 return on assets forecast to 1.8-2% from 1.6%.

What went down ⬇️

🔻 IndusInd Bank shares tumbled 6% despite a 72% jump in Q1 profit, as margin pressure and recovery concerns weighed on sentiment.

📉 Dr Reddy’s shares slipped over 1% after Q1 profit fell 69.2% to ₹663 crore, while revenue declined to ₹8,070.5 crore.

⛽️ HPCL shares fell up to 2.5% after the oil marketer reported a ₹11,500 crore Q1 net loss, hit by fuel and LPG retailing losses.

❌ Petronet LNG shares slumped over 3% after reports said QatarEnergy may delay LNG shipments until mid-October.

What else are we snackin’ 🍿

💊 Q1 miss: Cipla’s Q1 profit fell 39% to ₹789 crore, missing street estimates as margins contracted sharply despite a modest rise in revenue.

🧲 Magnet plant: N.A.N GreenMet will invest ₹1,250 crore to set up a NdFeB rare-earth magnet plant, targeting critical components for EVs, wind turbines, defence and electronics.

🚁 Air ambulances: the ePlane Company has signed a deal with Apollo Hospitals to deploy electric air ambulances and medical drones for emergency care, organ transport and inter-hospital transfers.

🏭 US expansion: Rubicon Research acquired a US manufacturing facility in New Jersey for $2.9 million, boosting its manufacturing footprint for specialty pharmaceutical products.

And that’s a wrap. Pour yourself an extra one this weekend. 🥂