Good morning. It has been a choppy few weeks for Indian markets, and today's edition catches a bit of that volatility alongside a mixed bag of news from around the world, some encouraging, some not. Here is what is worth your time this Friday.
In today's newsletter: Sensex and Nifty snap their losing streak, an oversubscribed IPO debut for a niche industrial player, and Russia's heaviest strikes on Ukraine in weeks.
Closing levels · August 20, 2026
Sensex 77,537.72 UP 628.04 (0.82%) |
Nifty 50 24,231.85 UP 153.55 (0.64%) |
USD/INR 95.70 DOWN 0.03 |
Brent Crude $93.01 UP 1.52% |
Equities bounced back hard on Thursday after a rough stretch, even as crude stayed firm on lingering Hormuz-linked tension, a reminder that the rally and the risk are coming from the same place.
Sensex, Nifty end four-session slide as IT and financial stocks lead the rebound
The BSE Sensex jumped 628.04 points, or 0.82%, to close at 77,537.72 on Thursday, while the NSE Nifty 50 gained 153.55 points, or 0.64%, to settle at 24,231.85, snapping a losing streak that had dragged both benchmarks lower over the previous several sessions.
The bounce was broad-based, but IT and financial stocks did the heavy lifting, a reversal from earlier in the week when the same two sectors had led the market down. Traders pointed to easing worry in global bond markets as one trigger for the relief rally.
The mood is still fragile. Brent crude stayed firm near $93 a barrel, with tension linked to the Strait of Hormuz keeping a floor under oil prices, a dynamic that feeds straight into India's import bill and the rupee.
Thursday's bounce does not erase the pressure Indian equities have been under this month, driven largely by elevated crude prices and jittery global rate expectations. A single day of gains led by rate-sensitive sectors like financials suggests some investors are betting the worst of the bond-market anxiety is behind them, but the oil overhang has not gone anywhere, and one good session does not make a trend.
While equities had their best day in weeks, the rupee barely budged, closing just 3 paise firmer. A weaker dollar index should have given the currency more room to gain, but elevated crude prices ate up most of that tailwind, a sign that the same oil story propping up sentiment in one market is quietly capping it in another.
Tempsens Instruments IPO gets off to a hot start, booked 5x on day one
The ₹650 crore initial public offering of Tempsens Instruments, an Udaipur-based thermal engineering company, was subscribed 5.3 times on the opening day of bidding on Thursday, one of the stronger starts for an Indian listing this year.
The grey market premium pointed to a listing price well above the ₹285-300 issue band, and Goldman Sachs and Temasek were among the anchor investors who bought in ahead of the launch, drawn by the company's roughly 10.5% share of India's thermal instrumentation market and a business that is hard for rivals to replicate quickly.
Russia's heaviest strikes in weeks kill at least 18 across Ukraine
Russia fired at least 44 missiles at Ukraine on Thursday, of which the country's air force said it shot down 39, in one of the most intense bombardments of recent weeks.
Ballistic missile strikes on Kyiv earlier in the day killed at least 16 people and set off explosions across several districts of the capital, and a nine-storey residential building in the Solomianskyi district collapsed and caught fire, the city's mayor said, before jet-powered drones struck the capital again later on. The attack piles fresh pressure on President Zelenskyy at home even as ceasefire diplomacy continues.
Breaking.exe
Jio's price shield. Reliance Jio has rolled out a one-time Rs 300 Jio Prime membership that locks in protection against future tariff hikes, a subscriber-retention play that stands in contrast to Bharti Airtel's more aggressive plan rationalisation. |
Starlink tries again. Elon Musk's Starlink has reapplied to India's space regulator for approval of its 30,000-satellite Gen 2 constellation, complete with direct-to-device connectivity, months after an earlier version of the same proposal was turned down for not meeting Indian spectrum norms. |
Apple's next act. Apple is expected to unveil ten or more new products at a September event, headlined by a foldable iPhone Ultra alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, in what would be incoming chief executive John Ternus's first major product launch. |
Pangaea Revisited
Gaza strikes escalate. Israeli strikes on a Gaza City police post and a hub in the Nuseirat refugee camp killed at least 10 Palestinians, with Hamas calling the attacks a "new war crime" just days after the latest US-led push to revive ceasefire talks. |
Canada tariff reprieve. Trump has delayed a threatened 50% tariff hike on Canadian goods as the two countries race to finalise a trade agreement, pulling back from a fight that had rattled North America's largest trading relationship. |
India-Mauritius energy pact. India and Mauritius signed an oil and gas cooperation MoU, alongside a five-year deal under which IndianOil will supply petrol, diesel and aviation fuel to Port Louis, deepening ties with a key Indian Ocean neighbour. |
Also, Also, Also
Test match statement. India beat Sri Lanka by 165 runs in the series-opening Test at Galle, with Manav Suthar taking a ten-wicket match haul to hand India a 1-0 series lead in what was also the country's 600th Test match. |
Sindhu's home Worlds end. PV Sindhu's bid for a record sixth World Championships medal ended in New Delhi as China's Wang Zhi Yi beat her 21-11, 15-21, 21-17 in a gripping Round-of-16 contest at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium. |
Home Worlds upset. American teenager Garret Tan, ranked 92nd in the world, stunned 14th-seeded Lakshya Sen at the badminton World Championships in New Delhi, silencing the home crowd at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium. |
What counts as an "industry". A nine-judge Supreme Court bench largely upheld the 1978 test for what counts as an "industry" under India's labour law, a ruling that will shape which employers and institutions fall under the Industrial Disputes Act. |