Newsletter
Sugar’s sweet rally, L&T’s growing order book, and a Miracle breakthrough.
🗓️ Morning, folks and Happy Fridayyy! ☀️
What do you do when two of the biggest streaming giants are beefing? Grab popcorn 🍿
So, YouTube is gladly burning a hole in its wallet to keep top creators from drifting into Netflix territory.
The platform is offering millions of dollars to popular channels to keep their videos exclusive to YouTube for a set period, either by directly funding shows or sharing lucrative brand deals.
Why the cold shoulder? Because Netflix has been wooing dozens of big YouTubers, paying them to post the same content on both platforms.
For creators, it’s an easy win: make the videos they already make, get paid extra and tap into Netflix’s 325-million-plus subscriber base.
But YouTube isn’t thrilled. It believes cross-posting could eat into its views and make it harder to convince advertisers that YouTube is still the creator’s main stage.
Back to Dalal Street where markets finally remembered what green looks like. After seven straight sessions of losses, Indian markets bounced back on Thursday.
The Sensex and Nifty gained up to 0.8%, with nearly 40 of the 50 Nifty stocks ending in the green.
Heavyweights including Kotak Mahindra Bank, ITC, Bharti Airtel helped lift the index. Sector-wise, auto stocks recovered from their lows. Midcap IT continued to outperform, with Coforge and Persistent Systems gaining around 3% each.
💡 Spotlight: Sugar stocks are on a sweet rally 🌾
Several sugar stocks jumped as much as 18% on Thursday, even as the government tightened limits on how much sugar large buyers can hold in a bid to cool rising prices.
Which stocks are winning: Balrampur Chini Mills gained 18%, Bannari Amman Sugars rose 17%, Dwarikesh Sugar was up 15%, and Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar gained around 14%.
Why is it happening: sugar prices have jumped 10% in the past month to record highs as supplies tighten and festival demand approaches. To cool prices, the government is considering allowing around 1 million tonnes of raw sugar to be imported duty-free and has also restricted stockpiling.
The supply crunch is partly because India consumed more sugar than it produced in 2025-26, while exports also reduced domestic supplies.
With sugar now offering better returns than ethanol, mills may also choose to make more sugar instead of turning sugarcane into ethanol.
Let’s hit it! 💪🏻
1 Big Thing: India-Japan defence ties hit the seas 🇮🇳🇯🇵
Konnichiwa & Namaste!
India and Japan have signed a new Maritime Security Cooperation agreement to deepen their defence partnership.
What’s cookin’: the Indian Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force will work closely on keeping track of ships and activity at sea, search-and-rescue missions and disaster relief.
And that neighbourhood matters. A huge amount of the energy, raw materials and goods used by India and Japan travels through shipping routes across the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
The two countries said they oppose attempts to disrupt freedom of navigation or change the status quo through force or coercion.
Indian and Japanese warships could increasingly use each other’s ports and get logistical support when operating away from home. The countries also want to make it easier for their ships to be maintained and repaired in each other’s facilities.
More military exercises: India and Japan already conduct exercises including Dharma Guardian and JAIMEX. Now they want those drills to become more complicated and realistic, including the use of unmanned systems and even exercises organised at short notice.
Japanese fighter aircraft will also participate in Veer Guardian 26 in India for the first time, while the two sides want more exchanges between their Special Operations Forces.
Beyond the battlefield: India’s DRDO and Japan’s ATLA will deepen cooperation on advanced defence technologies. The two countries also plan to convene a Defence Industry Forum to bring their defence ecosystems closer together.
2. L&T lands world’s biggest airport ride 🚆
Larsen & Toubro, along with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, has won a ₹2,500-5,000 crore order to build the world’s largest Automated People Mover (APM) system at Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport.
What’s going on: L&T will build infrastructure for driverless trains that will move passengers between terminals.
Think tracks, electricity supply, signalling, communication systems, platform screen doors and the equipment needed at the train depot. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will bring its APM technology and systems expertise.
Once fully developed, Al Maktoum International Airport is expected to become the world’s largest airport, capable of handling 260 million passengers and 12 million tonnes of cargo every year.
Zoom out: for L&T, this is its 11th announced order win in just a month. Since July 20, the value of these wins adds up to roughly ₹95,000 crore to ₹1.3 lakh crore.
And this week alone has been busy. On Monday, L&T’s offshore energy business won an ₹15,000+ crore order to develop multiple offshore facilities in the Middle East.
Bigger picture: during the US-Iran conflict, L&T shares came under pressure partly because investors were worried about the company’s sizeable Middle East exposure. A prolonged conflict could have delayed projects and hurt new business from the region.
Fast-forward to now, and that same region is handing L&T some very large contracts.
3. A cancer vaccine before GTA 6? 🧐
Shares of US vaccine maker Moderna skyrocketed more than 100%, nearly doubling the biotech’s share price after it announced positive results from its first-ever late-stage trial of an experimental cancer vaccine.
With the surge, Moderna became the second-best performer in the S&P 500 so far in 2026, trailing only memory-chip maker Sandisk.
Breaking it down: the vaccine is being jointly developed with Merck and could be unprecedented in cancer treatment. It is designed as a custom-made vaccine for each patient, based on the specific genetic characteristics of their tumour.
And approval? Next year.
Why is this a big deal: initial data suggests the combination could become a new treatment option for melanoma, which accounts for only about 1% of skin cancers but causes the vast majority of skin cancer deaths.
The treatment is personalised to each patient. Researchers analyse the tumour after surgery, identify its specific mutations and use mRNA technology to create a vaccine that trains the immune system to recognise and attack those cancer cells.
4. Why did SEBI bar two trading firms? 🤕
SEBI has barred two firms for allegedly manipulating the Sensex during the new Closing Auction Session.
The case offers a closer look at how F&O positions, large orders and the final minutes of trading came together to influence the index.
5. Stocks that kept us interested 🚀
What went up ⬆️
🚀 Strides Pharma rose 3% after the USFDA issued an Establishment Inspection Report, confirming successful closure of inspection at its Bengaluru facility.
💰 Aditya Birla Capital gained 3% after it announced plans to enter the gold-loan business, targeting 200-300 branches by March 2027 and 1,000 nationwide over three years.
📈 Eternal emerged as the top Nifty gainer, rising over 2% amid heavy trading volumes during Thursday’s session.
🚞 Titagarh Rail Systems climbed 2% after Indian Railways approved the company as a vendor for supplying traction motors.
☝️Coforge shares jumped nearly 4% after it launched a dedicated private equity unit to help PE funds improve portfolio companies.
What went down ⬇️
🔻Gensol Engineering tumbled close to 5% after CBI booked the company and BluSmart founders over alleged ₹672 crore loss to IREDA from loan misuse.
📉 Power Finance Corporation and REC shares fell up to 3% after Morgan Stanley cut its growth estimates for both companies.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
🏗️ Infra growth: India’s infrastructure output grew 5.4% year-on-year in July, easing slightly as iron ore and electricity production moderated under the revised nine-industry core sector series.
📈 Dual trading: NSE may allow its shares to trade on its own platform after formally listing on BSE, potentially boosting liquidity and enabling eventual inclusion in Nifty indexes, subject to the regulatory framework.
🌍 Deal done: Urban Company expanded its Unicommerce partnership to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, using the Uniware platform to manage inventory and fulfilment for its growing at-home services business.
📊 MSCI derivatives: BSE has partnered with MSCI to explore launching futures and options linked to MSCI indexes in India, giving investors another avenue to access and hedge Indian market exposure, subject to regulatory approvals.
💰 Maiden funding: Fintech unicorn Navi raised $100 million from Prosus in its first institutional funding round, subject to closing conditions and CCI approval.
🔐 Cyber remediation: Hexaware launched Zero Vulnerability, an AI-led cybersecurity offering that prioritises, fixes and verifies enterprise vulnerabilities across applications, cloud platforms and operating systems.
And that’s a wrap. Pour yourself an extra one this weekend. 🥂
We’ll be back like clockwork on Monday!
Hit that 💚 if you liked this issue.
Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and research purposes only. Nothing here should be considered financial, investment, legal, or professional advice.
