Newsletter
The AI bill gets heftier, a crypto heist shakes the industry, and UPI hits a fresh milestone.
🗓️ Morning, folks and Happy Mondayyyy! ☀️
Monday blues were about to wash over us when ISRO decided to change that.
We just took a new step closer towards GPS independence!
ISRO launched navigation satellite NVS-03 aboard the GSLV-F18 rocket from Sriharikota on Friday night. The satellite will strengthen NavIC, India’s homegrown navigation system, helping users find their way and access accurate timing without relying entirely on America’s GPS.
NVS-03 carries advanced atomic clocks that provide precise time, crucial for banking, stock markets and defence. It will also add a new signal to improve navigation coverage.
The launch is part of India’s push to build its own navigation and timekeeping systems, including using homegrown atomic clocks to maintain Indian Standard Time. Who knew beating the Monday blues could involve a rocket launch?
💡 Spotlight: Wall Street questions the AI bill 🤖
The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 2.8% on Friday, its steepest one-day decline since June. It is now 7.8% below its record high reached earlier in October.
What triggered it: Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta are expected to spend more than $700 billion this year, much of it on AI chips and data centres. Investors are no longer impressed by spending alone. They want proof that these investments will generate enough profit.
Intel added fuel to the sell-off, plunging nearly 29% after issuing a disappointing forecast.
Nvidia fell 4.2%, AMD dropped almost 11%, while the broader chip index lost 7.2%.
Additionally, as per reports, Anthropic may initially receive a below-investment-grade credit rating after its IPO.
In simple words, lenders could view its debt as riskier, forcing the company to pay more interest while funding its massive computing plans.
Let’s hit it! 💪🏻
1 Big Thing: Reliance’s oldest business steals the show 🛢️
Reliance posted its Q2 numbers on Friday, led by its oil-to-chemicals business. Here’s how its major businesses performed.
First, the big numbers: Reliance delivered its best quarterly performance yet.
- Net profit: ₹29,550 crore, up 33.8% YoY
- Revenue: ₹3.62 lakh crore, up 27.8% YoY
- EBITDA: ₹62,409 crore, up 23.9% YoY
All three reached record highs.
The company also earned more than ₹50,000 crore in profit during the first six months of FY27, another first for the company.
Note: the company did not reach these numbers because every business performed equally well. Most of the heavy lifting came from the company’s oldest and largest segment - Oil-to-chemical (O2C).
The O2C segment reported its highest-ever quarterly operating profit at ₹25,203 crore, up 67.9%. Meanwhile, revenue grew 44.2% to ₹2.32 lakh crore.
The how: the segment performed well because the gap between the cost of crude oil and the selling price of fuels widened sharply. Crude prices rose more than 40% from last year, while several refined fuel prices increased even faster.
Second, Reliance Retail grew, but margins shrank:
- Gross revenue: ₹91,716 crore, up 6.4% on a yearly basis
- EBITDA: ₹6,120 crore, down from ₹6,817 crore (YoY)
- EBITDA margin: 6.7%, down from 7.5% (YoY)
Retail’s performance was affected by the timing of the festive season. Several major festivals moved into the December quarter this year, meaning some shopping that would usually happen during Q2 was postponed.
The company also absorbed higher product costs instead of passing all of them on to customers. At the same time, it continued investing in its business-to-business and online operations.
However, JioMart’s revenue grew 42% as customers placed larger orders and purchased more items in each order.
Third, Jio keeps adding users:
- Gross revenue: ₹47,485 crore, up 11.3%
- EBITDA: ₹21,879 crore, up 16.6%
- Net profit: ₹8,387 crore, up 13.7%
- EBITDA margin: 54.1%, up from 51.6%
The improvement came from more subscribers, higher customer spending and growth in Jio’s digital services.
Fourth, Oil and gas: Reliance’s upstream oil and gas business, which extracts fuel directly from fields had a quieter quarter.
2. Black Friday for Binance 😕
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance said hackers stole about $6.3 billion in a ‘security incident’ that appears to be the biggest crypto heist in history.
The latest: Binance resumed withdrawals of Bitcoin, Ethereum and some other cryptocurrencies on Sunday after covering 95% of the $6.3 billion in stolen tokens.
Breaking it down: following the hack, Binance initially announced a suspension of deposits and withdrawals. It also said about $3 billion in funds had been frozen and pledged to cover all losses linked to the incident.
The breach could be the largest cyber incident ever, surpassing the previous publicly known record set by hackers who stole almost $1.5 billion from Bybit in 2025.
Binance said on X, “We are working around the clock and will share a full post-mortem once the investigation is complete. Please rely only on official Binance channels for updates.
The cause: Binance’s initial investigation suggests the incident may have involved a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which allowed an attacker to access a service container and submit unauthorised withdrawal transactions.
The company said it had found no evidence of a wallet private key leak.
The market impact: Bitcoin dropped 3% at the end of the US session and another 3% during Asian trading, falling below $77,000 to its lowest level since September. Other tokens also sold off.
3. SK hynix’s strong comeback 😮💨
SK hynix was losing money in 2023. Last quarter, the South Korean chipmaker made a whopping ₩83.33 trillion ($63 billion) in operating profit, with margins nearing 80%.
Much of this comes down to AI. Data centres are consuming enormous amounts of memory, pushing chip prices higher. Great news for SK hynix, but less exciting for anyone buying a new phone or laptop.
We break down how AI turned memory chips into such a profitable business, and whether this boom can last.
4. Stocks that kept us interested 🚀
What went up ⬆️
📈 Welspun Living jumped 3% after Q2 profit surged to ₹170 crore from ₹14 crore, while revenue rose 16.3% and EBITDA more than doubled.
💉 Laurus Labs surged 7% after the pharma and CDMO company reported sharply higher earnings for the July-September quarter.
🥳 Navin Fluorine rose 5.5% after Q2 profit jumped 81.8% to ₹269 crore and revenue grew 57.1% to ₹1,191 crore.
✈️ IndiGo’s parent InterGlobe Aviation climbed 4% after Q2 results, with Jefferies, Nomura and HSBC retaining their ‘buy’ ratings.
What went down ⬇️
🔻AI-related stocks, including E2E Networks, Hitachi Energy India and MTAR, fell up to 5% amid concerns over AI investment returns.
🤒 Intellect Design Arena plunged nearly 17% after September-quarter net profit rose just 2% year-on-year to ₹104 crore from ₹102 crore.
❌ Suzlon Energy slipped nearly 8% after disappointing Q2 results and FY27 EBITDA margin guidance was cut to 15-16% from 17%.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
✅ Green signal: SEBI approved IPO plans for appliance maker Atomberg Technologies, Punjab Carbonic and supermarket chain Ratnadeep Retail.
📱 Tech boost: Tata Sons pumped another ₹1,100 crore into Tata Electronics as it doubles down on iPhone manufacturing and semiconductor ambitions.
💰 Tax rush: GST collections jumped 23% to ₹2.3 lakh crore in October, marking their fastest growth in over four years, with import revenues surging 42.2%.
💸 UPI frenzy: UPI hit a new milestone in October, processing a record 25.47 billion transactions worth ₹31.53 lakh crore, taking average daily transaction value past ₹1 lakh crore for the first time.
That’s a wrap! Don’t let the Monday blues get to you.
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Disclaimer: this newsletter is for informational and research purposes only. Nothing here should be considered financial, investment, legal, or professional advice.
