Maruti Suzuki’s consolidated net profit fell 9.11% year-on-year to Rs 3,446.9 crore in the quarter ended June 2026, down from Rs 3,792.4 crore, even as the carmaker posted its fastest revenue growth in several quarters.

Revenue from operations on a consolidated basis rose 35.91% to Rs 52,469.8 crore, up from Rs 38,605.2 crore a year earlier. Standalone net profit came in at Rs 3,352.1 crore, down from Rs 3,758.1 crore, while standalone net sales climbed 36% to Rs 49,959.1 crore.

The company sold 6,82,724 units during the quarter, a rise of 29.3% year-on-year, with domestic small car sales up 34.1%, SUV sales up 44.6% and exports up 28.6%. Domestic market share improved to 41.2%, a gain of 2.3 percentage points.

Operating EBITDA margin slipped to 8.22% from 10.4% a year earlier as higher material costs and increased promotional spending pressured profitability despite the strong volume growth.

The company said the commissioning of its Kharkhoda plant in Haryana had boosted production capacity, allowing it to meet rising domestic and export demand through the quarter.

Maruti Suzuki shares closed 0.36% higher at Rs 14,239.40 on the BSE ahead of the results announcement on Friday, July 31, 2026.

Maruti Suzuki’s results arrived during a busy earnings week for Indian markets, with Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finserv, Indian Oil Corporation and ABB among other large companies also reporting first-quarter numbers.

Separately, foreign institutional investors trimmed their holdings across several Nifty 50 companies during the quarter, even as domestic institutional investors raised their combined index ownership to a record 25.9%.

The company said the ramp-up at its Kharkhoda plant in Haryana added meaningfully to output during the quarter, helping it meet strong domestic and export demand.

Maruti Suzuki remains India’s largest carmaker by volume, competing with Hyundai, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra across the passenger vehicle segment.

Photo: Prime Minister’s Office, Wikimedia Commons, GODL-India

Anicut Capital has unveiled the Grand Anicut Seed Fund, an early-stage vehicle with a target corpus of Rs 175 crore and a Rs 75 crore greenshoe option.

The fund, registered as a Category I Alternative Investment Fund with SEBI, will invest in pre-seed to Series A startups across deep-tech, enterprise-tech, consumer and financial services.

Anicut plans to invest in over 20 startups through the fund, with cheque sizes typically between Rs 5 crore and Rs 8 crore.

Three deals have already been closed, with the fund targeting a first close of roughly $10 million in the coming month, drawing from institutional investors, high-net-worth individuals and family offices.

This is the firm’s second early-stage fund, following the Grand Anicut Angel Fund, which has backed 68 startups since 2021.

Companies from that earlier portfolio have raised more than Rs 6,000 crore in follow-on funding collectively, with portfolio revenue growing tenfold.

Ajay Anand, Partner at Anicut Capital, said the firm’s early-stage investment strategy had been validated through the previous fund and that the new vehicle builds on that track record.

The launch comes as Indian early-stage investors increasingly look beyond artificial intelligence toward sectors including manufacturing, deep-tech and enterprise software.

The launch comes in a week that saw Indian startups raise $209 million in total, with manufacturing, aerospace, enterprise software and healthtech leading investor interest.

The fund is planned for deployment over roughly three years, with about 70 per cent directed toward new investments and 30 per cent reserved for follow-on funding.

Category I Alternative Investment Funds registered with SEBI are typically used by venture capital and angel investment vehicles in India to pool capital from institutional and high-net-worth investors under a regulated structure.

India’s early-stage funding environment has seen investors increasingly diversify beyond artificial intelligence in recent months, with manufacturing, deep-tech, enterprise software and healthtech drawing larger allocations.

(Image: Photo by Libreravi, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Indian markets opened on a strong note on Wednesday, with the Sensex up 657.85 points, or 0.85 per cent, at 77,423.77, and the Nifty 50 higher by 191.3 points at 24,176.65.

The gains were led by IT stocks, with Infosys up 3.89 per cent, while L&T, TCS, Hindustan Unilever and Tech Mahindra also rose in early trade.

Sectorally, the Nifty IT index gained as much as 2.51 per cent and the Nifty FMCG index rose 1.52 per cent, even as most Asian markets traded weaker.

Power Grid was the biggest loser in early deals, down 0.67 per cent, with InterGlobe Aviation, Asian Paints, Maruti and Titan also among the decliners.

Market breadth favoured advancing stocks, with 1,837 gainers against 550 losers and 103 unchanged counters on the BSE.

The rally followed a rebound in crude oil prices after a roughly 14 per cent decline over three sessions amid heightened US-Iran tensions.

Institutional buying supported sentiment, with foreign institutional investors purchasing ₹755.33 crore worth of shares and domestic institutional investors buying ₹1,664.16 crore on July 28.

Traders were closely watching the US Federal Reserve’s policy decision expected later in the day, even as domestic indices posted solid opening gains.

The rise followed Tuesday’s flat finish, when the Sensex closed at 76,765.92 and the Nifty at 23,985.35 amid a fragile pause in US-Iran hostilities.

The India VIX volatility gauge had eased to 12.56 on July 28, down 0.79 per cent, with a firmer rupee and cooling geopolitical tensions supporting calmer sentiment ahead of Wednesday’s session.

Market watchers said the rebound in crude oil, after three straight sessions of sharp declines, had eased some of the concerns that had weighed on Indian equities earlier in the week amid the ongoing US-Iran tensions.

Sustained buying by domestic institutional investors in recent sessions has also been credited with cushioning Indian markets against bouts of volatility driven by global cues.

(Image: “BSE building at Dalal Street” by BSEINDIA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)