Newsletter
Pharma makes headlines, IT giants team up, and Memecoins reveal the game plan.
🗓️ Morning, folks! ☀️
If it involves Gen Z, dating and gaming in one story, you know you’re bound to come across a bizarre one. And this time, at the heart of the story is GTA 6.
GTA 6 is bringing players plenty of crime and chaos, but it may also come with a surprisingly unfamiliar challenge: being a good partner.
Players can shape Jason and Lucia’s relationship by going on dates, spending time together, texting and making small choices that bring them closer.
The feature has already sparked jokes online that, for some Gen Z gamers, Lucia could be their first-ever girlfriend.
The jokes have some context: 56% of Gen Z said they dated as teenagers, while a 2025 survey found 30% had never been on a romantic date. Yet 86% of single Gen Z respondents said they wanted a committed relationship.
In GTA 6, keeping the romance alive means doing the little things, answering texts and making time for each other. Ignore Lucia too often, and your virtual relationship could take a hit.
But you know what else took a hit? The markets. 😐
Markets struggled for a second straight day, with the Nifty and Sensex ending largely flat.
On the sectoral front, Nifty FMCG and Nifty IT outperformed, while Nifty Healthcare and Nifty Pharma saw the sharpest declines.
On the currency front, the rupee gained 27 paise intraday and closed at ₹94.95 against the US dollar, compared with Monday’s close of ₹95.16.
Meanwhile, tensions between the US and Iran are escalating. The US launched fresh strikes on Iranian targets following attacks on shipping, raising fears of renewed conflict around the Strait of Hormuz
💡 Spotlight: Gold wasn’t the most precious metal yesterday 💔
Back home, major jewellery stocks traded lower on Tuesday morning after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Indians to refrain from buying gold unless absolutely necessary.
Titan fell 1%, Kalyan Jewellers 4.6%, Thangamayil Jewellery 1.8%, BlueStone 0.5%, PC Jeweller 6.1% and Augmont Enterprises 4.6%. Senco Gold bucked the trend, rising 1.19% and rebounding 3.3% intraday.
He called on people to avoid unnecessary foreign travel, overseas weddings and gold purchases, saying this could reduce foreign-exchange outflows, support the rupee and boost domestic consumption.
Let’s hit it! 💪🏻
1 Big Thing: Sun Pharma joins Trump’s drug pricing gang 💊
Sun Pharma has joined a group of eight drugmakers at the White House to announce new agreements with the Trump administration aimed at making medicines more affordable in the US.
The deets: the Trump administration has been pushing drugmakers to lower prices in the US. It has already struck similar deals with 17 major pharma companies, including Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Merck, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk.
As part of its deal, Sun Pharma will get a two-year break from Section 232 tariffs on its innovative medicines, helped by the investments it has already made in the US.
The stock? It slipped over 2% despite the tariff relief.
Why it matters: the temporary tariff relief is particularly important for Sun Pharma because the US is a huge part of its business. The country contributes around 27% of its global revenue and is its biggest market for innovative medicines.
Big picture: global spending on medicines is expected to reach around $2.4 trillion by 2029, growing at an estimated 5-8% annually.
The global pharma industry is also expanding, but volume growth in the future is expected to be gradual, with emerging markets doing more of the heavy lifting.
2. Two IT giants in a room? They merged 👀
ITC Infotech is merging with Happiest Minds Technologies to create a larger IT company with a strong focus on AI.
Breaking down the deal: Happiest Minds’ promoters will first sell a 22.1% stake to ITC Infotech for ₹1,329 crore. The two companies will then merge through a share-swap deal. The combined company is aiming for $1 billion in annual revenue by FY28.
ITC is expected to own around 73.4% of the merged company, while Happiest Minds’ existing promoters will hold 7.6% and other public shareholders 19%.
Why does the deal matter: for ITC Infotech, the deal means more scale and access to Happiest Minds’ strengths in digital and product engineering. It also gives ITC Infotech a path to a stock-market listing through Happiest Minds’ existing listed status.
For Happiest Minds, the deal brings the financial strength and backing of the much larger ITC Group.
Larger trend: this deal is part of a bigger wave of consolidation in India’s IT industry. TCS acquired Porsche’s IT and management consulting arm MHP for over $370 million, Persistent Systems bought Nagarro for about $1.3 billion, while Coforge acquired Encora for $2.35 billion.
3. Tim Cook steps down after 15 years! 🫡
Tim Cook has stepped down as Apple CEO after nearly 15 years, with John Ternus taking over.
Cook leaves behind a very different Apple from the one he inherited in 2011.
Revenue has grown from about $108 billion to over $400 billion, Services now brings in more than $100 billion a year, and Apple has expanded into wearables, custom chips and a much tighter ecosystem.
Bye Bye Tim Cook 💔
4. Why cheap Ozempic isn’t taking off in India? 😐
India’s GLP-1 market got a major reset after semaglutide’s patent expired in March 2026. More than 30 generic versions entered the market, with monthly treatment costs falling to as low as ₹1,290.
Demand jumped at first. Semaglutide sales rose from about ₹58 crore in March to ₹88 crore in April, while generic injectable volumes surged from roughly 40,000 units to 1.37 lakh.
But the momentum cooled quickly. By June, GLP-1 market growth had slowed to just 2.3%, even as cheaper generics became widely available.
5. Crypto is still in Gen Z’s playbook 😎
Gen Z is changing how India invests. WazirX data shows that Gen Z investors have a median age of 25, made up 72% of new investors in H1 2026 and accounted for 32.1% of active traders.
Crypto is becoming their entry point into investing. Nearly 44.4% of Gen Z investors on WazirX started with crypto, suggesting digital assets are increasingly where their investment journey begins.
6. Stocks that kept us interested 🚀
What went up ⬆️
💊 Cipla ended in the green after it secured exclusive rights to Chinese firm Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Group (CTTQ) cancer drug across India, South Africa and five markets.
📈 Engineers India jumped 7% to a fresh 52-week high, extending gains for the third consecutive trading session.
🛤️ Texmaco Rail climbed 4% after it secured a $135 million international order to supply Wabtec diesel-electric locomotives in Africa.
🚗 Force Motors gained after August domestic vehicle sales jumped 62% YoY to 3,721 units.
What went down ⬇️
👎🏻 IndiGo and SpiceJet fell over 3% after aviation turbine fuel prices were hiked 5.46% for the second straight month.
📉 EPL tumbled nearly 9% after 9.15 crore shares worth ₹2,253 crore changed hands in a large block deal.
🔻Cable stocks, including Polycab India, KEI Industries and Havells India, slipped 5-7% after UltraTech Cement began commercial wire and cable production at its Gujarat facility.
❌ Sugar stocks, including Dwarikesh Sugar, Triveni Engineering and Uttam Sugar fell up to 7% after the government tightened stockholding limits nationwide.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
✈️ Deep pockets: Aerospace startup Alteon raised $2.5 million to build self-flying aircraft that use wind to stay airborne, much like albatrosses do.
👋🏻 Pink slips: Zomato is reportedly going to cut nearly 250-300 customer support jobs as it shuts its Hyderabad centre.
💸 Tax boost: India’s gross GST collections rose 15% year-on-year to ₹1.99 lakh crore in August, extending strong revenue growth for three months.
🚀 EV push: Yuma Energy raised $35 million, acquired Grinntech and plans to expand its battery-swapping network and customer base across India’s EV market.
🍦Sweet entry: Reliance Consumer entered India’s ice cream market with the launch of its new brand, Bombay Creamery.
That’s a wrap! Don’t let the weekday 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.
