Weekly Market Update — 20th Sep 2026

Indian Markets

Nifty 50 remained flat and closed at 23,346 just 51 points lower from last week (-0.22%)

FED Increases Interest rates after 3 years by 0.25% to 4%. This was largely expected and the markets had already factored this news in. This was the key reason why we saw equity markets falling last week and Bond yields rising. The market is expecting RBI to follow the FED and increase interest rates as well in the Monetary policy meeting in October.

When interest rates rise, borrowing becomes more difficult for businesses, expansions slow down and it becomes difficult for any business to grow, this is why businesses underperform and equity markets come under pressure. From an investor's point of view, when interest rates rise they can earn higher interest on US Treasuries and the gap between what they can earn from US Treasuries (a very safe instrument) vs what they can earn from equity markets shortens. This makes equities look less attractive. They would have to take so much extra risk just to earn a few percentage points more on equities, so they prefer US Treasuries and move their money from equities to debt.

Technical View

On the weekly time frame I wouldn't consider this a confirmation of a bounce and wait to see how nifty reacts this 23,000-23,200 level. If nifty breaks the 23,000 levels, we could go down to 22,200 levels.

Gold

Gold surprisingly is holding steady even after the rate hike. Gold was up by 1.05% over last week and closed at 1,54,381 (per 10g). Usually when interest rates increase gold tend to underperform but we are seeing the opposite of that at least in the short term

Crude Oil

Crude oil was up by 1.39% and closed around 9,659 per barrel. In the FED's press conference one analyst jokingly asked that the 0.25% increase in interest rate is not going to open the strait of Hormuz… Kevin Warsh clarified that they have the duty to only control the second and third order effects of inflation, they can't control the source of the inflation which is tension in the middle east but do their best to control the impact of that on the overall economy

UPI Drama

NPCI implements 0.4% charge on merchant transactions above 2,000 rupees, My view is that why should it be free? We can't keep wanting infinite infrastructure development and be penny wise at the same time. The money will help the institution fix glitches and increase efficiency of the payment system.

Solar Industries Acquires South African Omnia, Falls by 16%

Solar decided to Acquire 100% Omnia Holdings an agriculture inputs and mining solutions company for 12,951 crore rupees. The market reacted violently to the news, and the stock was down by 16.76% over the last week and closed at 18,555. The bet largely depends on if the synergies come into play or not, as the acquisition is based on internal accruals and debt, the capacity of both the companies to generate that much internal accruals and service the debt would depend largely on whether the synergy comes into play or not. Omnia expected to generate around 100 million dollars cash flows in FY27. The combined revenue For FY28 for both firms is expected to be around 32,000 crore in FY28 and EBITDA of 7,000 crore and a PAT of more than 3,500 crore. If these numbers hold this would be a brilliant acquisition and investors should not mind the short-term dip and rather looks this as an accumulation opportunity.