Everything is more expensive...yet again 😢
New AI muscle, fintech IPO brewing, and thermal still thriving.
🗓️ Morning, folks! ☀️
Markets kicked off the week on a strong note.
The Sensex and Nifty ended nearly 1% higher after the US and Iran confirmed a deal to end their conflict.
Airline and tourism stocks such as IndiGo and SpiceJet climbed as much as 6%, while tyre & rubber companies gained up to 5% after Brent crude slipped to around $83 a barrel.
Shares of HPCL, MRF gained as falling oil prices raised hopes of lower costs.
For Dalal Street, a cooling oil market and easing geopolitical tensions turned out to be the perfect recipe for a green Monday.
💡 Spotlight: India’s vehicle demand hits top gear 📈
Indians are still buying vehicles despite higher fuel prices.
India’s automobile industry recorded its best-ever May sales performance in 2026, with passenger vehicles, two-wheelers and three-wheelers all posting record sales for the month.
The numbers: passenger vehicle sales jumped 27.3% to nearly 4.4 lakh units, while two-wheeler sales rose 14.8% to over 19 lakh units.
Three-wheelers were the biggest surprise, with sales surging 31.1% year-on-year.
Why this stands out: the strong performance came even as vehicle running costs increased. Petrol and diesel prices rose by more than ₹7 per litre during the month, while CNG prices also moved higher.
Let’s hit it! 💪🏻
1 Big thing: Another Iran war impact: wholesale inflation surges 📈
India’s wholesale inflation climbed to 9.68% in May, the highest in over a year.
Quick context: WPI tracks price changes at the producer and wholesale level, before products reach consumers.
Note: this is also the first WPI reading under India’s revised inflation framework, which now uses 2022-23 as the base year instead of 2011-12.
Breaking it down: the biggest culprit was energy.
Fuel and power inflation surged to 30.33% in May from 24.89% in April. Prices of mineral oils, crude oil, and natural gas saw sharp increases as tensions in the Middle East continued to keep global energy markets on edge.
In simple terms, when oil gets expensive, almost everything becomes costlier to produce and transport. That eventually impacts manufacturers, businesses, and consumers alike.
Food prices also started heating up.
Wholesale food inflation rose to 4.49%, up from 3.11% in April. Higher prices for food articles and processed food products contributed to the increase.
Meanwhile, inflation in manufactured products moved up to 7.48%, indicating that companies are facing higher input costs across industries.
Over time, India also plans to shift towards a Producer Price Index (PPI) framework, which is considered a more modern way of tracking producer-level inflation.
2. Everything everywhere AI at once 🤝
The data centre frenzy is back, and this time Schneider Electric Infrastructure is enjoying it.
What’s going on: shares of the company jumped nearly 10% after its parent, Schneider Electric, announced a partnership with Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn to build the next generation of AI data centres.
The collaboration combines Foxconn’s expertise in AI servers, advanced computing platforms and manufacturing with Schneider Electric’s strengths in power systems, cooling and energy management, three things every AI data centre relies on.
How do companies actually make money from data centres?
For tech giants like Google and Microsoft, data centres are the backbone of their cloud businesses.
They build the infrastructure, but the real profits come from selling services like cloud storage, computing power and AI tools to millions of customers.
Analysts also expect India to become the second-largest market for data centre electricity demand in Asia-Pacific within the next two years.
3. Razorpay’s stock market era begins 💅
Razorpay has confidentially filed IPO papers with SEBI, officially kicking off its journey to the stock market.
A confidential IPO filing lets a company begin the listing process while keeping key financial and business information private until a later stage.
The deets: the company is expected to raise ₹5,000-6,000 crore through its IPO, which could value the Bengaluru-based fintech company at ₹50,000 crore to ₹60,000 crore.
The timing: the filing comes as rival fintech PhonePe has temporarily paused its own listing plans due to the Middle East conflict and heightened market volatility.
Even so, India remains a hot destination for IPOs.
In 2025, it became the world’s second-largest IPO market, with 367 listings raising $21.8 billion, despite a choppy start to 2026.
4. India’s thermal power deals are firing up 🔥
JSW Energy signed a deal to acquire Maruti Clean Coal and Power (MCCPL), which owns and operates a 300 MW thermal power plant in Korba, Chhattisgarh.
Why does this matter: because JSW isn’t buying just a power plant, it’s buying a business that already has customers.
The plant has an agreement to supply power to Rajasthan’s electricity distributors for nearly 14 more years, ensuring a steady stream of revenue.
Once the deal is completed, the company’s thermal power capacity will move closer to 6,000 MW, strengthening its position in India’s growing electricity market.
Bigger picture: even though more than half of India’s installed power capacity now comes from non-fossil fuel sources, thermal power still plays a crucial role in keeping the lights on.
And demand is only going up. India’s per capita electricity consumption is expected to rise from around 1,400 kWh today to nearly 4,800 kWh by 2050.
5. One-third of India is missing the investing boom 💸
India’s financial awareness journey still has a long way to go.
According to the World Economic Forum, only one in four Indians is financially literate, meaning they understand basic concepts such as investing, saving, budgeting and debt management.
That gap is visible in investing too.
While awareness is improving, millions of Indians are still unfamiliar with stocks, mutual funds and other investment products.
6. Stocks that kept us interested 🚀
What went up ⬆️
💧Oswal Pumps gained over 6% after ₹247 crore solar panel order update.
🏠 Shriram Properties rose 2% after signing a Joint Development Agreement for a premium Bengaluru project with a gross domestic value of ₹600 crore.
🚆 GR Infraprojects surged nearly 3% after securing a major railway infrastructure project, which includes bridges, tunnels, stations, and track construction.
🚗 Gabriel India jumped 10% as brokerage firm Motilal Oswal initiated coverage with ‘buy’ rating.
What went down ⬇️
💊 Aurobindo Pharma fell more than 4% after a USFDA inspection flagged issues at one of its plants.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
☝🏻Revving up: Jio Platforms jumped 320 places to enter the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s (WIPO) global top 20 patent rankings, joining technology giants like Apple, Samsung and Google.
⚡️Expansion plan: Hitachi Energy India will invest ₹2,000 crore to build a large power transformer factory in Gujarat, expanding its manufacturing capacity.
🚄 Speed boost: Railway stocks gained up to 4% after the government unveiled a ₹16 lakh crore plan for seven high-speed rail corridors.
✅ Listing done: Vedanta completed its mega demerger, listing four businesses. Anil Agarwal told CNBC-TV18 aluminium capacity could reach 10 million tonnes.
🫡 Growing ties: A US trade team will visit India on June 23-24 to finalise the first phase of a bilateral trade deal.
⬆️ Trade boost: India’s exports rose 18% to $45.2 billion in May, while imports surged 21%, pushing the trade deficit higher.
That’s a wrap! Don’t let the weekday blues get to you.
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