Welspun Corp's largest-ever order is bigger than a full year's revenue

The Big Picture

• Friday's session. The Sensex closed at 77,540.83, up just 3.11 points, & the Nifty at 24,252.00, up 20.15 points. Metals & realty gained while IT, FMCG & autos fell; the Nifty Midcap rose 0.1% & the Smallcap 0.69%. For the week the Nifty lost 0.5% & the Sensex 0.6%, a second straight weekly decline. This is a weekend edition: Friday's wrap & conditions heading into Monday.
• Force one: crude. Brent ended at $94.39, up 6.4% for the week, as the US-Iran conflict over the Strait of Hormuz (the channel carrying roughly a fifth of the world's seaborne oil) continued. Washington has promised details of an "economic D-day" package to isolate Iran's economy on Monday. For India, every $10 on Brent adds roughly 0.3-0.4 percentage points to CPI over time & widens the import bill, which is why the rupee & bonds both weakened.
• Force two: global bonds. The US 30-year yield went above 5.3% this week, the highest since 2007, on heavy government borrowing plus a new source of supply: bonds issued by AI companies to fund data-centre capex. The US Treasury promised to at least double its bond buybacks from September; that calmed markets mid-week, but by Friday the 10-year was back near 4.71%. The market's verdict: buybacks treat the symptom, not the deficit.
• Force three: the hawkish minutes. Wednesday's policy minutes carried the most hawkish tone in a year, with CPI projected to peak at 5.9% in Q3 FY27 against a 5.25% repo rate. The 10-year G-sec rose to 6.87%, an eight-week high. An October hike is now a live possibility.
• Elsewhere. US equities bounced Friday (Dow +518 points) but posted weekly losses; bitcoin surged 22-24% on the week to about $78,000; gold & silver hit records in rupee terms.