COST Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s cable and internet gear makers are experiencing the effects of the US-Iran war, with companies citing higher raw material costs, export disruptions, and growing uncertainty across global markets.The geopolitical tensions have pushed up prices of key inputs such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), copper, aluminium, preform, helium and polymers, while also affecting exports to West Asia, according to companies such as Havells India Ltd, Polycab India Ltd, R R Kabel Ltd, Sterlite Technologies Ltd (STL) and HFCL Ltd.“While US tariff headwinds have meaningfully moderated from peak levels, adding margins, we are seeing new near-term cost pressures from geopolitical disruption driven by the war in West Asia, particularly impacting helium and polymer inputs,” said Ajay Jhanjhari, chief financial officer at STL, during an analyst call on 29 April.Helium is mainly used in making optical fibre for telecom networks, so it matters more to companies such as STL and HFCL. Polymers are used in almost all wires and cables to cover and protect them, affecting the entire industry.To be sure, some telecom gear makers, impacted by the US reciprocal tariffs, saw an improvement in margins during the March quarter owing to the tariff being reduced from 50% to 15%.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.IndiGo and Air India have opposed proposed passenger charges by India’s newest airports, warning that higher tariffs would make flying more expensive and slow passenger traffic growth when domestic aviation demand is weakening.Adani-owned Navi Mumbai International Airport Ltd (NMIAL), which started operations in December, currently levies a user development fee (UDF) of ₹620 on domestic departures and ₹270 on arrivals. It has proposed increasing this by 20% in FY28 and 10% annually until FY31 for a net increase of 45% over five years.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s merchandise trade deficit was about $333 billion in 2025-26, 17.5% wider than the previous year’s. Reducing import dependence is critical and gold stands out as a major item in this context. As the world’s second-largest gold consumer, the country imported nearly 803 tonnes in 2024-25 but produced just 1.6 tonnes (0.2% of demand); last year’s figures would be comparable.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Investors of Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp stocks have little to complain about their March quarter (Q4FY26) performances. After all, Bajaj and Hero’s Ebitda grew by 36% and 31% year-on-year, respectively, to ₹3,323 crore and ₹1,856 crore.The companies tackled sequential profitability concerns over high input costs well. This reflects in the sequential improvement in Ebitda per vehicle by 3% for Bajaj to ₹24,200 and by 1.5% for Hero to ₹10,800.So, what led to the stellar show? Profitability protection by increasing the average selling price (ASP) and robust sales volume growth.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The global jet-fuel crunch is hitting Asia’s low-cost airlines harder than their full-service counterparts. Governments should prepare financial or operational support to avoid further flight cancellations during the busy summer travel season—as well as outright shutdowns like the collapse of America’s Spirit Airlines.Discount carriers like Malaysia’s AirAsia, Indonesia’s Lion Air and Cebu Air of the Philippines are already bearing the brunt of the energy shock. Policymakers must consider targeted measures in the form of loans, grants or fuel price relief.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Most of the recent conversations around Bima Sugam, the IRDAI-backed one-stop digital insurance marketplace, have focused on access – simpler purchases, standardised products, and possibly lower costs through zero-commission policies. If executed well, this could reduce the friction in buying and managing insurance.But for households dealing with ageing parents, this addresses only one part of the financial reality. The more relevant question is not whether insurance is easier to buy, but whether it meaningfully covers the full cost of ageing.India is already at an inflection point.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Banks are at their peak performance in India. Credit growth is faster than nominal GDP growth, world-class digital platforms have arisen and regulations have been supportive. Return on assets reached a milestone 1.4% and gross non-performing assets (NPAs) fell to a 13-year low in fiscal year 2024-25.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: The government’s subsidy spending has already reached 91% of the revised estimate for financial year 2026 in the first 11 months, highlighting sustained strain from welfare commitments that is unlikely to ease soon, as the West Asia war fuels cost pressures in the economy.According to the Department of Expenditure data, reviewed by Mint, total expenditure on major subsidies including food and fertilizers stood at ₹3.89 trillion during April–February, against the revised estimate of ₹4.29 trillion. The department is still collating the final month's figure.The subsidy spending is higher than ₹3.63 trillion recorded in the same period of FY25.Despite higher subsidy spending, the fiscal deficit moderated to ₹12.52 trillion during April–February FY26, lower than the ₹13.46 trillion in the same period last year, the ministry data showed.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Music labels, grappling with slow growth in paid subscriptions and advertising revenue in the Indian market, are increasingly eyeing regional music catalogues to bolster libraries and returns. Times Music, Warner Music and Saregama have acquired regional catalogues recently. Such consolidation benefits both established players and smaller regional companies.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: Demand for beer in India is holding up, but for United Breweries Ltd, rising costs and delayed pricing are squeezing margins.The Heineken NV-controlled maker of Kingfisher beer reported a weaker-than-expected performance for fiscal year 2026 (FY26), with revenue and profit declining even as volumes showed some resilience. A fresh wave of input cost inflation, particularly in packaging, alongside supply disruptions linked to the West Asia conflict, is driving the pressure in India’s tightly regulated beer market.Revenue from operations fell 10% to ₹1,746.3 crore in FY26 from ₹1,940.8 crore a year earlier, according to exchange filings, while profit declined 6.6% to ₹413.4 crore.For the quarter ended 31 March (Q4FY26), revenue was largely flat at ₹440 crore versus ₹442.7 crore a year earlier, while profit rose to ₹101.8 crore from ₹97.7 crore.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In recent months, a palpable sense of concern has begun to ripple through investors. Inflationary pressures—once dismissed as a transitory aftershock of global recovery—now risk becoming entrenched.The drivers form a difficult triad: destruction of energy infrastructure in West Asia leading to volatile oil and gas prices, persistent supply chain constraints, and a domestic agricultural squeeze triggered by a lower-than-anticipated monsoon and record-high fertilizer costs.The RBI’s decision to raise the inflation forecast for FY27 to 4.6%—up from an earlier target of 4%—signals that these fears are grounded in reality.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing finance, but its most important impact may not be on stock exchanges or global asset managers. It may be on the bank account of a 25-year-old Indian professional.The next big disruption in wealth creation is personal, not institutional. It is about how young earners budget, save, invest and avoid mistakes.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The rupee closed at a record low of 95.29 on Tuesday as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued to sell and crude prices stayed above $100 per barrel. Costlier oil is pushing up India’s import bill, while weak foreign inflows are limiting any recovery, said market participants.The rupee will see a meaningful recovery only once Brent crude falls below $100 and capital flows turn supportive again, market experts said, adding that against some emerging market peers, the rupee is beginning to look undervalued.Yet, the overall bias remains weak, with the rupee consistently facing selling pressure on rebounds.“In the near term, 94.70 is likely to act as resistance, while 95.50 is seen as immediate support, with markets closely tracking US non-farm payrolls and unemployment data this week for further direction," said Jateen Trivedi, vice-president and research analyst for commodity and currency at LKP Securities.Over the past year, the rupee has weakened by nearly 11%, with over 4% of that decline coming since the war broke out.Even as earnings improve and nominal growth normalizes, the rupee remains under pressure from higher crude prices this year and continued FPI selling after last year's trade tensions, said Harsh Gupta Madhusudan, fund manager, PIPE, Ionic Asset.The last one to two years have been the perfect storm for India with gold imports remaining strong, India not having any clear AI play, and post-2024 elections macro tightness filtering through with a lag, which is now being reversed.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: For India, the fallout from West Asia conflict, while negative for the macro-economy, would remain manageable if a final peace deal is reached by mid-May.Any extension beyond that could push up oil price expectations and have a more severe impact, not just on the macro, but also on earnings for the current fiscal, which are otherwise expected to hold up better than the economy in the context of the war, according to Sanjeev Prasad, managing director and co-head, Kotak Institutional Equities.In an interview to Mint, he also explained why foreign investors continue to pull out despite valuations correcting.Edited excerpts:It is a little bit of a challenge as of now. The hope was that the West Asia war would end by early April...then mid-April and at the end of last month we were hoping for mid-May.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Late in 2018, when Angad Soni was preparing to launch Sepoy & Co., his botanical mixers startup, he was sure of two things: one, he had to get the formulation of his first product, tonic water, right. Two, the bottle in which it would be sold had to stand out.The target audience was consumers of premium gins who had likely sampled high-quality tonics on trips abroad, but had to settle for mass-market brands in India sold in plastic bottles, or in cans, such as Schweppes.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.E-commerce companies and delivery platforms are scrambling to hire workers during peak summer demand but are finding it difficult to fill roles on time, as experienced gig workers increasingly refuse to play ball, recruitment firms said.These gig workers are no longer attracted by slightly higher pay on another platform, and in some cases even dropping out late in the hiring process, as they look for formal, stable jobs with predictable incomes to cope with rising living costs. This has pushed up hiring costs by 15-20% this summer season as gig workers prefer fixed-salary jobs that pay at least ₹15,000-20,000 a month - levels that still fall short of their financial needs.“We are observing signs of a supply-side constraint.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.At this point, the Gulf war has started to seem like a series of missed deadlines and hollow pronouncements. What began as a two-week truce on April 8th is now approaching its fifth week. Donald Trump claims he can ignore a law that requires the American president to seek congressional approval for wars that last longer than 60 days (this one began 65 days ago).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The government is considering awarding national highway contracts only after obtaining all critical clearances, a move aimed at curbing project delays and cost escalation, according to two officials aware of the development.Under the proposal being considered, road projects will be awarded only after at least 90% of the land required is acquired, a norm already being enforced more strictly in recent years. In addition, the ministry of road transport and highways wants prior approval to remove structures such as houses and buildings that fall along the project stretch, an issue that has emerged as a key source of delays, one official said.According to the second official, even after land acquisition and statutory approvals, pending permissions to remove or modify built-up structures have stalled several projects.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.U.S. cities are facing huge liabilities that remain invisible on their books: dilapidated roads, bridges and buildings.A new study aims to put a dollar figure on the total wear and tear on the country’s urban infrastructure, and arrives at $1.03 trillion.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Ather Energy’s March quarter (Q4FY26) results are a classic case of operating leverage in action. While revenue surged 74% year-on-year to ₹1,175 crore, matching market expectations, net loss narrowed significantly, shrinking 57% to ₹100 crore.However, investors remain cautious despite these gains. Volume growth was robust, supported by rapid network ramp-up (700 experience centres versus 350 last year) and the continued success of the Rizta scooter.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s automotive sector is navigating what can only be described as a “perfect storm” — geopolitical instability, rising crude prices, currency weakness and tightening emission norms.With 90% crude oil import dependence, Brent crude crossing $110 per barrel, and the rupee at a record low of ₹95.40/USD (as on 5 May), the economics of internal combustion engine (ICE) ownership are under strain.At the same time, regulatory shifts — E20 ethanol blending and BS6 Stage 2 norms — are reshaping the cost structure of conventional vehicles.In this environment, electric vehicles (EVs) are transitioning from being a green alternative to a fiscal hedge. For Indian consumers, electric mobility is increasingly looking like a viable long-term solution.India’s 90% crude import dependency makes it acutely exposed to the West Asia war.