Everything around you is numbers – Shakuntala Devi
Kiran Pahal, Poovamma Machettira, Prachi Choudhary, Vithya Ramraj, the Indian women’s hockey team, Neeru Dhandha, Lovlina Borgohain, Parveen Hooda, Ankush Panghal, Ankita Bhakat, Kirti, Kumkum Mohod, Indian Men’s and Women’s Kabaddi team, Indian Women’s Cricket team, Kamaljeet, Suruchi Singh, Chikitha Taniparthi, Sahil Jadhav, Kynan Chenai, Ganesh Mani Ratnam Thirumuru, Kushal Dalal, Pranavi Urs and Sujeet Kalkal – In a cricket obsessed nation, these names will be forgotten soon once the initial euphoria dies out. For those unaware, these are India’s Golden boys and girls at the ongoing Asian Games in Japan, and with certainty, there will be more. But it is during this time that they make a country sit up, take notice, cheer every medal, and, of course, stand with pride and a tear in their eye when Jana Gana Mana plays, and the tricolour goes up, particularly in a foreign land. You’ve done us proud, and we cannot be prouder! Of course, no less respect for the other medalists as well. You’ve done us equally proud. Our friend Matthew Thomas has made sports a category to watch right here at CNBC-TV18 by interacting with a lot of our medal winners, and you can view that right here!
Hello to all you Espresso Lovers! A hello had to first be said to our Champions. They deserve all of it before we get to this week’s brew. Yes, it was a four-day work week, but when you do eight days’ worth of work in four, it does not feel like one. Today’s espresso is dedicated to numbers, and every number, big or small, had a story to tell, just like our Gold Medal tally above, which is still counting higher!
Eight – The number of weeks in a stretch that the Nifty has delivered negative returns. This has never happened in over 25 years. Today marks exactly two months since the index had made a high of 24,774 during the inaugural Closing Auction Session. In the 42 trading sessions since, the index has lost nearly 2,500 points and has gained only in 15 of those sessions. Higher oil prices, rising bond yields, fears of higher interest rates- everything has had an impact on the market, so much so that even the good news of strong GDP growth did nothing to revive sentiment. All eyes are now on the upcoming earnings season and whether that could finally get the market out of its slumber.
12 – The number of Nifty 50 stocks that are currently at a 52-week low. Maruti Suzuki, Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, BEL, Tata Consumer Products, Max Healthcare, Jio Financial and Reliance Industries make up that list. At any other time, they would become screaming buys for carrying the “quality stock” label with them. But Bernstein says they are products of a bygone era and instead of investing in their future, they are consolidating their past. That sums up the story of the index as well, right? When your biggest constituents don’t perform, how can the index move higher?
Six – The number of sessions it took PB Fintech to wipe out everything it had gained since its listing in 2021. The stock, at its record high, had more than doubled from its issue price of ₹980. Even until the week before last, the stock was trading at a 52-week high despite correcting from its peak. Then comes a draft IRDAI circular. The result of these draft norms was a 36%, 4%, 1.3%, 6.1%, 1.6% and 8% fall in the following six sessions to wipe out all the gains and even take the stock below its issue price at the intraday low. Thursday’s closing level? ₹980. Exactly the issue price. HDFC MF has been brave to buy some stake at lower levels, but the stock has slumped below that price too. What follows is a cloud of uncertainty: what will the company do next to arrest this fall? If Woh 7 Din Changed Anil Kapoor’s life, these six days have been a nightmare that every PB Fintech investor would want to forget and never remember Woh 6 din!
16 – And the challenges don’t end here either. While there are no mainboard IPOs opening for subscription in the upcoming week (surprise surprise!), there are 16 companies whose shareholder lock-in will end during the course of the upcoming week and then begins the real test of these stocks as to whether the post-IPO euphoria sustains or not. Interestingly, nine out of these 16 companies are currently trading below their issue price, and all 16 of them are down from their post-listing highs, with declines ranging from 1% to as much as 30%. That is the one big thing to look forward to in the upcoming week.
Three – We finally have clarity. Who heads what. The CEO succession drama is finally over at two of India’s largest financial institutions. The RBI finally ended the suspense for HDFC Bank on Thursday evening when Anup Bagchi was given the green light to become the next MD & CEO of India’s largest private sector lender. Just earlier in the day, the regulator had greenlit the appointment of Anup Saha to become the next MD & CEO at Kotak Mahindra Bank, ending speculation over who will succeed Ashok Vaswani after his term ends at the end of the year. Bagchi, currently at ICICI Prudential, will be succeeded by Sidhartha Mishra as MD & CEO for a five-year term starting October 14. Mishra is an internal candidate and currently heads digital channels & partnerships, NRI, and IFIG Groups at ICICI Bank. Of course, who else but our banking star Ritu Singh to bring you all the details first and exclusively about HDFC Bank and Kotak Bank, while the ICICI Prudential news was a confirmation of our Insurance monopolist and newborn Daddy Yash Jain!
12 – ICICI Bank is a CEO generating factory, just like Hindustan Unilever has been for the FMCG sector. Ritu tells us that at least 12 (there are many) individuals from the ICICI Bank stable have gone on to lead various organisations in the future, including both the Anups mentioned above. The line-up is an impressive one too: Shikha Sharma of Axis Bank, Zarin Daruwala, Rajiv Sabharwal, Vishakha Mulye, Kalpana Morparia and so many others. The conveyor belt is still running, and hopefully, there are many more future CEOs that are being groomed to lead many an organisation going forward!
12 & 65 – It is not as if everything is down in the dumps in India’s stock market. People have made money too. Provided they were in the right stock at the right time. There are 12 names in the Nifty 500 that have gained 100% or more so far on a year-to-date basis. The best performer, Sterlite Tech or STL, is up over 800%! The number, when we widen the Horizon and go into the BSE Smallcap index, goes up to 67 for stocks that are up 100% or more on a year-to-date basis. There will be many others who would have also gained between 50% and 100%, and one would take that with both hands, when absolute index returns have been zero and even negative! IPOs have also been money spinners, not all, of course; 21 out of the 86-odd listings so far in 2026 are below issue price. We had a lovely conversation on IPOs in this week’s Editor’s Playbook, and you can catch that here.
The ingredients for a market recovery next week are in place. The business end of the market cycle has begun with earnings updates starting to trickle in and TCS kickstarting the season on October 8. The Accenture results boosted the fortunes of the US-listed Indian IT stocks, as did the appointment of the new HDFC Bank CEO. Both are index heavyweights, and those, along with the fall in oil prices, could trigger a market recovery on Monday. Yes, they did give up some of those gains on Friday, but we can be optimistic, right? After all, aur kitna hi bura ho jayega from what has already happened. The only way to move now is higher. Over to the bulls on Monday!
That’s all on this week’s Espresso! We salute our Golden Stars once again, with the hope that many more are coming and the prep for LA 2028 is on the right track! For the markets, we’ll continue to hope that better days lie ahead of us. We’ll be back next week with the latest brew! Until then, do like, share, subscribe to the newsletter and follow us on our social media platforms! Hope you all have a wonderful long weekend!