Two numbers from this week paint a brutal picture: algo desks captured 99% of derivative profits, and 32% of global fund managers are underweight on Indian stocks, the worst in Asia.
SEBI's FY26 study shows a lopsided ledger: proprietary desks kept gross profits near flat at ₹44,483 crore (down just 3%), while FPI profits plunged 55% and mutual funds fell 54%. Nearly all of it, 99%, came from algo entities. Retail traders stayed the only big loser, bleeding ₹91,685 crore after transaction costs.
Bank of America's August survey of 98 fund managers running $272 billion found 32% net underweight on Indian stocks, the worst reading in Asia, replacing Indonesia. The bearishness is not just price: managers cite missing AI exposure, weak growth, patchy reforms and elevated valuations. That lands awkwardly against Nifty earnings that just rose 18% year on year. The index is down 8% in 2026, the second-worst major market in Asia.
BSE's Closing Auction Session, live since August 3, has reset index option volumes to a new low: Nuvama counts average daily premium at Rs 15,600 crore, down 14% week-on-week, with contracts off more than 8%. Thin participation is feeding a self-reinforcing spiral, and Sebi's ex-parte order against two firms for alleged CAS manipulation has deepened the scrutiny. The brokerage's fix is blunt: only higher participation breaks the cycle.
Amara Raja's LFP licensing deal with China's Gotion is dead, so the battery maker is going it alone on NMC chemistry. It staffed its R&D with Indian-origin battery engineers poached from Tesla, Panasonic and Solid Power, and plans to start commercial production at its Telangana gigafactory next year. First out of the gate: 2 GWh of NMC cells for battery storage before passenger EVs.
NITI Aayog's 'Reimagining Skilling for Viksit Bharat@2047' report puts a hard number on India's idle workforce: 8.7 crore people not in education, employment or training, per the 2021 NSS round. Nearly 88% are tied to domestic duties, almost entirely women, a participation gap beyond unemployment. The proposed fix is a lifelong skilling framework covering around 60 crore citizens in five learner groups.
The August MPC minutes show Governor Malhotra keeping the repo rate at 5.25% but leaving the door open for a hike: any evidence of food, fuel, or input costs feeding into broader inflation "may need policy tightening." Headline inflation has climbed from 2.74% in January to 4.45% in July, yet core inflation stays tame at 3.9%. The panel is waiting to see whether price pressures persist before it moves.
Drivers worried that E20 ethanol petrol hurts mileage and engine life are trading up to branded 95-octane fuel, pushing its share of sales to 12-15% from about 4% in March. The twist: the premium stuff is also 20% ethanol, yet buyers happily pay ₹110-115 a litre for it. Dealers expect demand to keep climbing unless India restores a lower E10 blend at the pumps.
India's foreign exchange reserves jumped $9.9 billion to $716.90 billion in the week ended August 14, a second consecutive surge. The Reserve Bank's FCNR(B) deposit window, which has pulled in about $57 billion in foreign currency inflows, drove much of the gain: foreign currency assets rose $7.2 billion while gold climbed $2.67 billion. The kitty now sits within sight of its February record near $728 billion.
India's information and broadcasting ministry has killed the 12-minute-per-hour ad cap that bound TV channels since 2006, notifying the change in the Gazette on August 21. With channels grown from 62 to over 900 and all distribution digital, the ministry argues the old limit just handicaps TV against digital platforms that face no such cap. Broadcasters get a longer leash on ad inventory; viewers may get denser ad breaks.
India's cybercrime agency found a scam pattern hiding in plain sight: fraudsters used Google's Firebase to clone bank sites, then pushed apps that siphoned credit card data and OTPs off victims' phones. In August alone, I4C ordered 57 Firebase sites and databases taken down, seven of them impersonating SBI, ICICI and Axis. Firebase itself is legitimate infrastructure, which is why the fix is takedowns, not platform bans. Now regulators are strangling the infrastructure of fraud, not just the pages.
Indian state energy firms just paid over $23 per mmBtu for September LNG cargoes, the most expensive imports since 2022. Iran's strikes crippled Qatar's export terminal and ships still can't pass the Strait of Hormuz, so GAIL, GSPC and BPCL are bidding up spot gas against cash-rich European buyers. The bill lands on fertilizer producers, the reason New Delhi is scrambling for cargoes.
You’re caught up.
That was all 11 stories in the 22 August issue.