Reliance Industries Limited

Yuanta Securities estimates that Tipco Asphalt Public Company Limited, or TASCO, has a high chance of resuming crude oil imports from Venezuela, which will lift gross margins and drive normalized profit in 2027 up 23.8% to 1.9 billion baht. This follows PDVSA, Venezuela's state oil company, restarting direct crude sales contracts with former customers. Reports indicate Phillips 66 and Reliance Industries resumed purchases in May 2026, while TASCO and Valero Energy are expected to place orders in the coming months. Venezuelan crude has an asphalt yield as high as about 70%, compared with around 50% from other sources, significantly improving cost and production efficiency. The analyst therefore raised the 2027 normalized profit forecast by 18.9% and set a new target price of 19.40 baht, based on a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.8 times, while maintaining a buy recommendation. A 2026 dividend of 1.00 baht per share is forecast, representing a yield of 6.5%.

Brookfield Asset Management expects about 6.5 gigawatts of data-centre capacity for artificial intelligence to come online in India over the next five years, a senior executive said on Tuesday. The 6.5 gigawatt estimate refers to India's wider data centre market, not Brookfield's own planned capacity, according to Arpit Agrawal, managing partner and head of India and the Middle East for Brookfield's infrastructure group. India currently has about 1.5 gigawatts of installed data centre capacity, almost all for uses other than AI, and Brookfield expects non-AI capacity to rise to about 3 gigawatts in addition to new AI-related demand. Brookfield's Digital Connexion venture, a partnership with Digital Realty and Reliance Industries, has about 160 megawatts of data-centre capacity in India, of which 60 megawatts is operational and fully leased, with the remainder under construction. Meanwhile, Brookfield's India energy platforms expect to add about 4 gigawatts to 4.5 gigawatts of renewable capacity this year, and the firm manages more than 32 billion dollars of assets across its strategies in India, aiming to more than triple that figure to more than 100 billion dollars within five years.

Global refiners are cutting out commodity traders and buying Venezuelan crude directly from state-run PDVSA, eroding the temporary monopoly held by Vitol and Trafigura. Phillips 66 and India's Reliance Industries have already signed direct supply agreements, with Valero and Thailand's Tipco expected to follow. The shift comes after the U.S. Treasury issued special licenses to Vitol and Trafigura until June 2027, allowing them to move more than 100 million barrels over six months while others were locked out. PDVSA is restoring its pre-2019 model of direct contracts, raising its realized prices by avoiding reseller premiums. Backed by U.S. regulatory clearance, Venezuela's total oil and fuel exports climbed past 1.2 million barrels per day in mid-2026, up from an average of 847,000 bpd in 2025, and are now eyeing 1.37 million bpd by year-end.

Indian shares traded notably lower on Monday as U.S. forces struck Iran for a ninth consecutive day and Iran retaliated by firing missiles toward Jordan, risking a wider conflict. The benchmark BSE Sensex was down 640 points, or 0.8 percent, at 77,512 in early trade while the broader NSE Nifty index fell 170 points, or 0.7 percent, to 24,163. Brent crude prices rose above $90 a barrel for the first time since mid-June, fanning inflation fears and clouding the interest-rate outlook. Reliance Industries rose over 1 percent after beating Q1 expectations, while HDFC Bank slumped 4.7 percent despite a 5 percent year-on-year rise in standalone net profit. ICICI Bank gained about 1 percent after its Q1 consolidated net profit jumped 14 percent, and JSW Steel advanced 1.2 percent after its consolidated net profit more than doubled for the quarter ended June.

Indian shares rose notably on Monday, with benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty extending gains for a fourth consecutive session. The BSE Sensex surged 521.16 points, or 0.67 percent, to 78,285.07, while the NSE Nifty index settled 159.50 points, or 0.66 percent, higher at 24,430.35. Gains were driven by falling crude prices after OPEC+ decided to raise output, eased concerns over near-term Federal Reserve rate hikes, optimism for corporate earnings, and strong provisional June quarter business growth updates from banks. Among prominent gainers, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, BEL, Mahindra & Mahindra and HDFC Bank rose 1-3 percent, while Kotak Mahindra Bank tumbled nearly 4 percent after reporting slower sequential growth in loans and deposits. IT stocks were subdued, with TCS falling 1.7 percent on fears of another subdued quarter due to AI-driven pricing pressure and weak client spending.

Meta Platforms is partnering with Reliance Industries to build its first built-to-suit AI-enabled data center in India. The large-scale facility will run on renewable energy and use desalinated seawater for cooling, supporting Meta's global AI compute needs. The collaboration aligns with India's push to become an AI and data center hub and highlights how major technology companies are teaming with regional champions to secure power, connectivity, and regulatory expertise. The project could influence how quickly Meta trains and deploys AI models, including products tailored for the local market, while the focus on renewable power and advanced cooling may matter for investors tracking energy use and long-term cost structures around AI compute.

Indian shares fell sharply in early trade on Friday, with IT stocks plunging after Accenture slashed its annual revenue growth forecast, raising concerns about the outlook for Indian IT companies. The benchmark BSE Sensex dropped 702 points, or 0.9 percent, to 76,702, while the broader NSE Nifty index declined 187 points, or 0.8 percent, to 23,981. Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, TCS, and Infosys plummeted between 4 and 8 percent, and Wipro tumbled 3.5 percent despite completing a large multi-year data center migration project for METRO AG. HDFC Bank fell 2 percent after the RBI extended Keki Mistry's term as interim part-time chairman until September 18, 2026, while Reliance Industries edged up about half a percent ahead of its AGM, with investors awaiting updates on the proposed listing of Jio Platforms. Bharat Forge gained 1 percent after its defense arm KSSL partnered with US military vehicle maker AM General, Amber Enterprises rose about 1 percent on a manufacturing collaboration with Oppo Mobiles India, and Diamond Power Infrastructure rallied 2.8 percent on fund raising reports.