COST Financial News

Shares of AWL Agri Business (formerly Adani Wilmar) are down 36% since 21 November after Adani group’s exit. The stock hit a 52-week low of ₹171.19 on 16 March, amid muted financials for the nine months ended December (9MFY26), which added to the pressure.But the worst may be over. Its March quarter (Q4FY26) business update reveals sales volumes grew by 13% year-on-year.

The ministry of ports, shipping and waterways is preparing to roll out about 20 sectoral reforms in the first 90 days of FY27, including the creation of a maritime sector regulator, revamped shipbuilding incentives and measures to increase India’s shipping tonnage, as part of a plan to strengthen the country’s maritime ecosystem and cut logistics costs.The reform push, which is being finalized, is aimed at improving regulatory oversight, boosting domestic shipbuilding, increasing the share of Indian-flagged vessels in global trade and enhancing the ease of doing business across ports, shipping and inland waterways, two people aware of the matter said.“Reform measures like a dedicated maritime regulator, stronger support for shipbuilding and container manufacturing, and a push toward inland waterways and coastal shipping are especially impactful. They not only build domestic capacity but also make logistics more cost-effective and sustainable,” said Pushpank Kaushik, CEO and head of business development at Jassper Shipping, a global shipping and logistics company in Hyderabad.A key proposal under consideration is the setting up of a strengthened maritime regulator by expanding the role of the Directorate General of Shipping, which would be given wider powers over safety regulation, maritime training, ship registration and oversight of shipping operations.

India's retail sector giant, has rallied over the past month. While the broader markets fell, the stock surged from ₹3,800 to ₹4,200 during the period.Avenue Supermarts operates the DMart supermarket chain, founded by Radhakishan Damani.

“We do blue-collar hiring, mainly in the manufacturing and supply chain sectors, and there, the costs of getting workforce in the metros has gone up by about 15-20% in a month,” said Neeti Sharma, chief executive officer of TeamLease Digital, part of the staffing firm TeamLease Group.Scarcity of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has forced construction and manufacturing sectors' blue-collared workers—scaffolders, plumbers, welders, etc.—back to their hometowns and villages.Radheshyam and four others together iron clothes in south Mumbai. These migrant workers from Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh, together typically use one LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cylinder for a little over a month.

Between US President Donald Trump’s war in west Asia and a chip shortage triggered by Nvidia’s focus on supplying artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips, India’s top three smartphone brands Vivo, Oppo and Samsung, as well as Realme, Xiaomi and Nothing have emerged as the first casualties in a once-thriving market—increasing smartphone prices by as much as 40% across their portfolios.The price hikes are significant: smartphones make for India’s single-largest electronics category, with sales of over $43 billion through 2025. Since the pandemic in 2021, India has struggled to revive its smartphone market due to a stagnation of new features and an increasingly saturated market.While companies so far managed single-digit revenue growth on the back of rising premium phone sales, the current market conditions come as a double whammy: consumers are putting phone purchases on the backburner due to rising prices of basic needs such as cooking gas even as the rise in prices does nothing to aid the ailing market.Vivo, Samsung and Oppo accounted for 47% of the 152 million smartphones sold in the country last year, according to data from market researcher International Data Corp.

IndiGo, with India’s largest airline hitting one air pocket after another.In early December, it was caught off guard by its approach to new domestic regulations that curtailed and staggered pilots’ flying hours, forcing widespread flight cancellations. Then came the US attack on Iran, setting off a chain reaction across oil prices, West Asia aviation, and the rupee’s exchange rate against the dollar—all variables central to IndiGo’s business.As it heads into the peak summer season, the airline has significant course correction ahead if it is to return to the steady glide path it has long been known for.Nowhere is the strain more visible than in the share price of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, IndiGo's parent company.

Marico Ltd, even as war-led disruption and cost pressures are set to lash its fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) peers. The Nifty FMCG index is down 16% so far this year, while Marico’s stock has been largely flat.

Mint independently could not ascertain when Wilson’s notice ends, or whether the Tata Group has found a successor to steer the airline. An email sent to Air India seeking comment went unanswered.The Tata Group had hired Wilson from Singapore Airlines’ low-cost unit Scoot in May 2022, less than four months after the conglomerate acquired the government-run airline for ₹18,000 crore.

Mint. “Disruption means there's been a certain particular specification of vehicles the manufacturer is not able to give us.”Vigneswar, however, said consumer purchasing decisions remain unaffected, though dealers are urging customers to expedite purchases amid concerns over potential production disruptions.“We've been telling customers, please come and pick up your vehicles, because there could be a production issue.

An old commodity-trade adage is that the Middle East “sells hydrocarbons to buy carbohydrates.” The desert states send out their oil and natural gas, and in comes wheat and rice. There are a few things produced in the Gulf, however, that are crucial to global food production: nitrogen fertilizer such as urea and ammonia, and the gas used to make them.So the war in Iran—and its blockage of the Strait of Hormuz waterway—has prompted warnings about another bout of global food inflation similar to the one that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite such fears, the agricultural market isn’t at risk today, at least in the short term.

The world has been through this before. Oil prices spike, supply chains shudder and emerging economies absorb the pain while advanced nations reach for their strategic reserves. But the conflict now roiling West Asia carries a twist that policymakers must not overlook: this is not a health shock, as covid was.

Regional storytelling has always had a strong emotional connect with audiences. When combined with the short, mobile-optimised format of micro-dramas, such stories can travel naturally across digital platforms, industry experts say.“We are starting to see early interest in regional language micro-drama storytelling as the format gains visibility in India.

After years of marginal tweaks, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) undertook one of the most consequential reforms in its External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) framework in February this year. Over the decades, commercial loans raised by Indian resident entities have been regulated under tightly-controlled regimes, with caps on the quantum of annual borrowing, ceilings on interest spreads, prescriptive maturity conditions and rigid end-use norms.

As we enter a new fiscal year, both the government and industry bodies such as the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) would do well to focus on what truly drives sustained growth in India: Is it the demand or supply side of the Indian economy?In ten-pin bowling, a strike happens only when the head pin is hit. Economic strategy is no different. If India wants to trigger a virtuous cycle of 8% growth, it must hit the right first pin.

This year’s summer holidays are not a simple beach-versus-mountains or Eiffel Tower versus Burj Khalifa decision. Instead, the West Asia war is likely to shape where you travel and how much you spend.

₹1.05 lakh per kilolitre, though lower than initially announced.On Wednesday, state-run oil marketing companies briefly hiked jet fuel prices by more than 100% before rolling back the increase for domestic scheduled flights following government intervention.International routes, however, will bear the full increase, setting the stage for costlier overseas travel ahead of the peak summer season. With ATF accounting for a substantial share of airline operating costs, carriers are expected to pass on the higher burden, making outbound travel more expensive in the coming weeks.FY26 proved turbulent for Indian equities, with foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) turning decisively bearish amid mounting global headwinds—from US-led tariff disruptions to the West Asia war.Net FPI outflows totalled ₹1.8 trillion in FY26, the highest since records began in 1992, according to a Mint analysis of National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) data, exceeding all previous episodes, including the global financial crisis in FY09.The selloff intensified towards end of the year, with March 2026 alone recording ₹1.2 trillion in outflows, as geopolitical uncertainty fuelled fears of FY27 earnings downgrades and unsettled India’s macroeconomic outlook.

₹800 crore handicrafts industry is seeing orders stall, cash get locked up and livelihoods fray—exposing its deep reliance on export markets.In Eidgah’s Narwara locality, Pashmina weaver Rauf Ahmad Qureshi, 54, keeps one eye on his loom and the other on television updates from the Gulf, where demand for his work is shaped. “We get work through traders, so any crisis impacts us quickly,” he told Mint. “An artisan lives hand to mouth.

₹600 per kg to ₹1,000 per kg, premium Mamra almonds from Iran up about 25% to ₹3,500 per kg, and prunes in some cases doubling from ₹500 per kg to ₹1,000 per kg. Pistachio prices have risen from ₹2,000 per kg to ₹2,800 per kg in the past month.Overall, he said, imported dry fruit prices have increased between 15% and 100%, depending on availability and sourcing constraints.India sources a wide range of dry fruits globally, with Iran and Afghanistan among the key suppliers of pistachios, figs, raisins, apricots, dates and premium Mamra almonds.

Mint found that 31 of these were deemed approved under Section 6(5) of the Competition Act, 2002, meaning they were automatically cleared as the CCI did not pass a final order within the stipulated period.According to data available on the CCI website for the period from 10 September 2024 to 26 March 2026, the regulator reviewed 199 cases, including 196 approvals, of which two were with modifications along with one exempt case (not requiring notification), one withdrawal, and one invalid notice.Queries emailed to the CCI and the ministry of corporate affairs seeking clarity remained unanswered till the time of publishing.The Competition (Amendment) Act 2023 reduced the outer limit for deal approvals from 210 days to 150 days, effective September 2024, aiming to speed up deal clearances and improve regulatory certainty.According to lawyers, faster approvals reduce uncertainty and risk, enable quicker deal closures and capital deployment, lower costs, and improve deal certainty, making transactions more efficient and investor-friendly.“Lenders and investors benefit from improved visibility on timelines, enabling better alignment of financing commitments with deal closures, reducing reliance on costly bridge financing, and lowering risk premiums,” said Neeha Nagpal, founding partner at NM Law Chambers. “It also shifts negotiation dynamics, with fewer aggressive clauses such as ‘hell or high water’ provisions or regulatory break fees, particularly in non-complex transactions.”Where timelines are unclear, parties tend to build in valuation adjustments or rely on contingent structures to manage approval risk, said Pranav Bhaskar, senior partner at SKV Law Offices.

steel tubes market, supported by an expansive distribution network.That scale advantage is difficult for competitors to replicate, and remains the backbone of APL’s pricing power and market-share resilience. Thanks to this pricing power, Nuvama Institutional Equities expects Ebitda per tonne to remain healthy at over ₹5,500.Importantly, this is no longer just a volume-led story.

The civil aviation ministry on Thursday has suspended a decision requiring airlines to offer passengers free selection for at least 60% of the seats on a flight. Mint examines whether this will help airlines offset rising aviation turbine fuel costs triggered by the war in Iran.Last month, the country’s aviation regulator asked airlines to offer 60% of the seats on every domestic flight to be selected free of charge, allowing passengers to choose them without paying an additional fee.