
Lacklustre session as investors stay on sidelines
Extending gains to the second day, the 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 57.75 points or 0.07 per cent to settle at 80,597.66. During the day, it rallied 211.27 points or 0.26 per cent to 80,751.18. The 50-share NSE Nifty rose by 11.95 points or 0.05 per cent to 24,631.30.
Among Sensex firms, Eternal, Infosys, Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finserv and Titan were the major gainers. However, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, Adani Ports and Bharat Electronics were among the laggards.
The Trump-Putin meeting could have significant implications for energy markets, potentially leading to an easing of sanctions against Moscow.
'After a volatile weekly expiry-day session, Indian equities ended flat as investors traded cautiously ahead of the US-Russia summit. IT and pharma stocks advanced on the back of a softer US inflation data and dovish outlook. Banking and consumer durables also gained on hopes of a consumption-led recovery,' Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Ltd, said.
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Economic Times
4 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Nifty India Consumption Index: Investing smartly in the spending basket
Synopsis India's consumption theme remains structurally strong, supported by demographics, rising incomes, urbanisation, and digitisation. Chintan Haria of ICICI Prudential AMC suggests investors can capture this long-term growth through the Nifty India Consumption Index, which offers diversified exposure across sectors and has consistently delivered competitive returns over time. IANS Despite concerns over a potential demand slowdown, India's private final consumption expenditure (PFCE) grew by 7.2% in FY 2024-25. The past 12-15 months have seen the markets turn quite volatile due to a variety of local and global macroeconomic factors, slowing corporate earnings, geopolitical tensions and FPI selling. Though there has been a recovery in key indices since April this year, choppy markets have returned as US trade tariffs (25% earlier and another 25% added recently) meant that many export-oriented sectors could feel the heat in the coming quarters unless an India-US deal is struck the other end of the spectrum, despite fears of a demand slowdown, India's private final consumption expenditure (PFCE) rose 7.2% in FY 2024-25. And consumption still accounts for 61.4% of India's GDP. Also Read | AMFI leads economic transformation with 3 decades of building an investor-first India With income tax cuts announced in the Budget starting to take effect this fiscal and also the pay commission for government employees set to make recommendations for increases in 2026, consumption is likely to get a boost. The RBI's 100 basis points rate cut is also set to give a thrust to credit that many segments in the consumption basket have corrected since September 2024 and are yet to recover significantly, there is some value comfort emerging in those sectors. Structurally, favourable demographics, improving per capita income, continuing urbanisation, premiumisation in purchases, formalisation in the economy and digitisation provide a long runway for the theme's growth. For investors, taking a passive approach through the Nifty India Consumption Index could be an effective way to gain exposure. India has one of the youngest populations in the world, with a median age of just 29 years compared to around 39 years for the US and China, favouring a larger potential India's steady economic growth (6-7%), the country's per capita income could double to around $5000 in the next 5-7 years, unleashing increasing consumption spending.A recent report from Deloitte says that by 2030, India may add around 75 million middle-income and 25 million rich and affluent households, making it one of the fastest-growing consumer markets to Invest India, digital shopping by mass consumers is likely to add ~45% to the gross merchandise value of e-commerce by 2030. Indian retail is aiming for a $2 trillion valuation by 2033. Electric vehicles are expected to account for about 40% of the Indian automotive market by 2030, generating $100 billion in is also on track to achieve 1 billion internet users by 2025. Monthly data usage has increased from just 61.7 MB in 2014 to 18.4 GB in retail in India is expected to grow to $85-90 billion by 2030, according to Bain & these data points suggest a structural story on India's consumption that could play out over the next 10-15 years. Also Read | SBI Mutual Fund: HDFC Bank and ITC among top 10 stock holdings in July As such, the consumption basket comprises several sectors and sub-segments spanning different industries. FMCG, automobiles, realty, healthcare, consumer services, retail, telecommunications, consumer durables, e-commerce, media & entertainment and power are some of the sectors that are part of the domestic consumption of these sectors has its own dynamics and business cycles. For retail investors, it may be difficult to pick specific segments and may therefore be better off taking the index route. The Nifty India Consumption Index contains a diverse range of stocks from the sectors mentioned earlier. The benchmark has 30 stocks across nine sectors. The weightage to individual stocks is restricted to 10%. This index is rebalanced semi-annually. On a point-to-point basis, the Nifty India Consumption index has delivered above-average returns over the past three, five and 10-year periods. The index has even outperformed broader indices mildly over the 10-year rolling returns, too, the Nifty India Consumption Index scores well. On a 5-year rolling returns basis from August 2010 to August 2025, the consumption index has delivered higher mean (14.7%) and median (15.02%) returns compared to broader indices. Also Read | Top 5 mid cap mutual funds to invest in August 2025 Investors seeking to participate in India's consumption growth story without the complexity of stock picking can consider taking exposure to the Nifty India Consumption Index through the ETF route. This enables passive investing in a diversified basket of companies across multiple consumption-driven sectors, offering broad-based exposure while adhering to the index's systematic weighting and rebalancing methodology. The ETF route also provides benefits such as lower costs and the convenience of liquidity, allowing investors to buy or sell units on the exchange like any other stock. (Author of the article is Chintan Haria, Principal - Investment Strategy at ICICI Prudential AMC ) (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of


Indian Express
4 minutes ago
- Indian Express
No deal or ceasefire: What the ‘failed' Alaska summit could mean for India
US President Donald Trump's push for a ceasefire in Ukraine did not yield results, with Russian President Vladimir Putin clearly not yielding. In the run up to the highly talked-up meeting in Alaska, Trump rolled out the red carpet for Putin. In the end, though, the Russian President seems to have come out as a clear winner, having got his moment in the spotlight when he transformed from a global pariah to one who got to share the stage with the leader of the world's most powerful country. In return, he gave pretty much nothing, it would seem. Previously Trump had threatened a tougher approach to Russia, with warnings of more sanctions if Moscow ignored calls for a ceasefire. He has not followed through yet, and it remains to be seen if he does anything now. There are no dates for a future summit, nor agreement on whether anything at all was decided between the two sides. And in a briefing that followed, it was Putin who inexplicably got to speak first, and a weary-eyed Trump spoke later, and no questions were taken. The apparent failure of the talks may come as a relief for Ukrainian and European leaders, who were worried that Trump would yield to Putin's demands and follow up on his earlier talk of swapping land. New Delhi too had one eye on America's frigid outpost over 15000 kilometers away, to see if anything came out of the spectacle that could impact India's prospects. There was some hope in India that if they reached a deal of some kind, that outcome would provide relief to New Delhi with respect to the secondary tariffs imposed on India. There was a belief here that the 25 per cent additional punitive tariff could possibly go away if the Trump administration believed that it was making some kind of progress with Putin on stopping the war. On the flip side, there was also the worst case scenario for India: if something came out of the meeting that looked really bad for Trump, personally or politically, then India would have to pay a price for that. This is despite the fact that the secondary tariffs seem to be less about Russian oil, and more about gaining leverage on India for not having concluded a trade deal with the US on Trump's terms and for having publicly debunked the American President on his claims of having brokered a ceasefire in the four-day way with Pakistan. There are two worrying statements for India that came in the context of the Alaska talks. Trump, in an interview with Fox News Friday, said that Russia 'lost' India as an oil client (after he imposed secondary tariffs on New Delhi), while discussing on Friday the economic aspect of the Russian leader coming to the negotiating table. Earlier in the week, he'd said that the secondary sanctions on India had forced Putin to agree to the talks. 'Certainly, when you lose your second largest customer and you're probably going to lose your first largest customer, I think that probably has a role,' he said. India is Russia's second largest customer for crude, while China, despite being first, has escaped secondary sanctions.. On Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Washington could raise its current 25 per cent secondary tariff on India if Trump's meeting with Putin failed to make headway on Ukraine. He also asked the European Union to impose a similar secondary levy on India. 'We put a secondary tariff on Indians for buying Russian oil, and I could see if things don't go well (in Friday's Trump-Putin meeting), then sanctions or secondary tariffs could go up,' Bessent told Bloomberg Television.


Hindustan Times
4 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Trump-Putin summit: 5 big takeaways from Alaska meet for India, other Russian oil buyers
A high-stakes Alaska summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin yielded no agreement to resolve or pause Moscow's war in Ukraine, although the powerful leaders described the talks as productive before heading home. US President Donald Trump (C) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) speak after delivering a joint press conference following a US-Russia summit on Ukraine at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15, 2025. (AFP) The meeting drew global attention — from Washington and Moscow to Europe, Ukraine, and even New Delhi because its outcome could determine whether India faces steeper US tariffs on key imports, including Russian oil. In the last few weeks, Donald Trump hit India with a 50 per cent tariff rate — much higher than the regional peers. The tariff bombs could hurt exports and put nearly 1 per cent of the nation's gross domestic product at risk, analysts said. Washington has already imposed a 25 per cent penalty on India's crude purchases from Moscow. Here are key takeaways from Trump-Putin Alaska summit: 'No deal until there's a deal': Trump conceded that 'we haven't quite got there' and said he would be conferring with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO leaders about next steps. Trump said he and Putin had made some significant progress toward the goal of ending the conflict but gave no details on what that entailed and had to acknowledge that they had been unable to bridge substantial gaps. 'I believe we had a very productive meeting,' Trump said. 'We haven't quite got there, but we've made some headway. So, there's no deal until there's a deal.' In a subsequent conversation with Sean Hannity of Fox News Channel, Trump again offered no details on his discussions with Putin. Hold off on imposing tariffs? Following the summit, Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity that he would hold off on imposing tariffs on China for buying Russian oil after making progress with Putin. He did not mention India, another major buyer of Russian crude, which has been slapped with a total 50 per cent tariff on US imports that includes a 25 per cent penalty for the imports from Russia. "Because of what happened today, I think I don't have to think about that now," Trump said of Chinese tariffs. 'I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don't have to think about that right now.' Putin praises Trump: The Russian president praised his US counterpart for the 'friendly' tone of the talks — Trump said nothing publicly about the killing of Ukrainian civilians in Moscow's attacks — and for 'understanding that Russia has its own national interests". No details and no questions: Both Tump and Putin said the talks were 'productive' but the lack of any announcement of solid achievements was revealing. The news conference ended up being less than 15 minutes of rather standard diplomatic comments — and gave no indication that any concrete results were achieved — and offered little departure from their previous comments on the war in Ukraine. Trump open to trilateral meeting: In the Fox News interview, Trump also suggested a meeting would now be set up between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which he might also attend. He gave no further details on who was organising the meeting or when it might be. Putin made no mention of meeting Zelensky when speaking to reporters earlier. He said he expected Ukraine and its European allies to accept the results of the US-Russia negotiation constructively and not try to 'disrupt the emerging progress.' There was no immediate reaction from Kyiv to the summit, the first meeting between Putin and a US president since the war began. (With inputs from agencies)