India gets its biggest-ever D2C deal 🤝
Liquors go buzzing, India Uk deal, and Apple hikes prices.
🗓️ Morning, folks and Happy Fridayyy! ☀️
A fifth consecutive win for the markets. Sensex and Nifty ended nearly 0.3% higher.
Banking stocks led the charge, pushing the Nifty Bank index up 0.7%, while Max Health, IndiGo, Trent and Adani Enterprises emerged among the day’s top gainers.
On the flip side, IT stocks hit the brakes after a three-day rally, making Nifty IT the worst-performing sectoral index.
💡 Spotlight: Liquor stocks raise a toast 📈
Liquor stocks rallied after India and the UK confirmed their landmark free trade agreement will come into force on July 15.
Who gained: among the biggest gainers were United Spirits and Radico Khaitan which jumped nearly 3%, followed by Tilaknagar Industries, and Associated Alcohols & Breweries which gained around 1%.
Why are these stocks rallying: the trade deal will gradually reduce import duty on Scotch whisky from 150% to 40% over the next 10 years.
Lower duties could make premium Scotch more affordable, boost demand, and support the premium liquor market in India.
Let’s hit it! 💪🏻
1 Big thing: Deal rush on Dalal Street 💸
French beauty giant L’Oréal is acquiring a majority stake in Innovist, the parent company behind popular personal care brands such as Bare Anatomy and Chemist at Play.
L’Oréal's acquisition of Innovist marks its first investment in an Indian company in nearly 13 years, since acquiring Mumbai-based Cheryl's Cosmeceuticals in 2013.
The why: it provides L’Oréal the access to a fast-growing set of digital-first brands that have already built strong online presence and consumer trust.
One interesting trend: serial founders keep doing it all over again.
Innovist Founder and CEO Rohit Chawla sold The Man Company to Emami, and now, with Innovist heading to L’Oréal, he’s on the verge of another major exit.
The deal is also a part of a broader wave sweeping through India’s beauty and wellness sector. Earlier this year, Hindustan Unilever acquired the remaining 49% stake in Oziva for ₹824 crore.
USV bought a 79% stake in Wellbeing Nutrition, while Marico acquired a 60% stake in Cosmix at a ₹375 crore valuation.
Other notable deals include Marico’s acquisition of 4700BC, ITC’s acquisition of Yoga Bar and Honasa Consumer’s acquisition of The Derma Co.
While we are on acquisitions 💪🏻,
Lloyds Engineering Works acquired a majority stake in Steel Infra Solutions Company for ₹1,073 crore.
Note: this marks one of the largest deals in the engineering and infrastructure space this year.
The why: Lloyds already works in engineering and manufacturing solutions.
By buying SISCOL, it gets deeper access to heavy steel fabrication, which is basically the making of large steel structures used in airports, stadiums, factories, energy projects and other big infrastructure work.
SISCOL also brings real project experience. It has worked on major projects like Delhi Airport Terminal 1, Noida International Airport, Dwarka Convention Centre and the International Hockey Stadium in Rourkela.
2. JBM Auto fills its coffers 💸
JBM Auto gained nearly 2% after its electric mobility arm secured a ₹750 crore investment from Motilal Oswal Alternates to scale its e-bus fleet.
Note: as per the company, this is the largest investment by an Indian investor in the electric mobility sector so far.
The deets: the investment will go into JBM Ecolife, JBM Auto’s electric bus business. The company plans to use the funds to roll out high-capacity e-buses that can gradually replace diesel buses in cities.
Zoom out: India is now the world’s third-largest electric bus market, driven by efforts to reduce pollution and electrify public transport.
While we are on investments,
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), one of the biggest foreign investors in Indian infrastructure, is investing up to ₹7,000 crore in CtrlS Datacenters.
CtrlS is a Hyderabad-based data centre company that operates more than 15 data centres across India. The investment values the company at around ₹44,824 crore, or about $4.74 billion, before the investment.
Breaking it down: as part of the deal, CtrlS and CPPIB will also form a joint venture to build large hyperscale data centre campuses across India.
CPPIB will invest ₹3,000 crore for a 48% stake, while CtrlS will hold the remaining 52%.
CPPIB’s total investments in India stood at ₹1.85 lakh crore as of March 31, 2026.
Earlier this month, Blackstone-backed AirTrunk announced plans to invest $30 billion to build 5 GW of data centre capacity in India by 2030. Meta also partnered with Reliance Industries for a 168 MW AI-enabled data centre in Gujarat.
3. India-UK trade deal ready for takeoff 🚀
The India-UK Free Trade Agreement (CETA) will officially come into force on July 15, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirming the date.
According to the UK government, this is the fastest a trade deal has ever been implemented after being signed.
The deal, which is the most comprehensive ever agreed by India, will boost UK GDP by £4.8 billion, real wages by £2.2 billion and bilateral trade by £25.5 billion every year in the long run.
4. Stocks that kept us interested 🚀
What went up ⬆️
🚃 HFCL shares rose over 3% after it secured a ₹2,666 crore contract from RVNL for telecom infrastructure deployment and 10 years of maintenance.
⚡ HDFC Bank shares gained after RBI extended Keki Mistry’s tenure as part-time chairman by three months until September 2026.
📈 Kirloskar Ferrous Industries went up nearly 4% after it secured a $13.5 million export order.
👟 Bata India shares surged over 16% after the company appointed former Nike executive Sanjay Rao as its new Managing Director and CEO.
🛒 Nykaa shares zoomed 6% after the management said it aims to cross $5 billion in gross merchandise value by FY30.
What went down ⬇️
🔻Cohance Life Sciences shares fell nearly 3% after its CFO resigned, raising concerns among investors about leadership stability.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
🛒 Going shopping: Wipro will acquire an additional 20% stake in Aggne Global, raising its ownership to 80% by June 2026.
🛢️ Order win: Man Industries and its Saudi subsidiary secured fresh orders worth ₹1,000 crore, strengthening the group’s global pipeline and export presence.
📱 Price hike: Apple will increase prices for iPhones, Macs and iPads as rising memory and storage chip costs make higher pricing unavoidable, according to CEO Tim Cook.
💻 Chip alliance: Intel shares surged 9% after US President Trump said the company will partner with Apple to design and manufacture chips in the United States.
📉 Forecast miss: Accenture shares plunged over 14% in premarket trading after forecasting Q4 revenue of $17.75-18.4 billion, below Wall Street’s $18.47 billion estimate.
🫡 Port relief: U.S. Central Command says it has ended all blockade enforcement around Iranian ports, allowing normal maritime traffic while naval forces remain nearby to ensure compliance with the agreement.
🐾 Petcare funding: Vetic raised $40 million in a Bessemer-led funding round to expand its pet healthcare clinics, veterinary services, insurance offerings and technology platform.
And that’s a wrap. Pour yourself an extra one this weekend. 🥂
We’ll be back like clockwork on Monday!
Hit that 💚 if you liked this issue.