ET Intelligence Group: A better than expected growth in corporate profits for the March 2026 quarter has prompted analysts to upgrade the earnings estimates of majority of the NSE 500 companies, according to the data from Bloomberg. For a sample of 335 companies where analysts have predicted earnings in each of the past five quarters, 304 or four out of every five companies reported earnings upgrades at the end of the March 2026 quarter, the highest since the March 2025 quarter when the number of upgrades was 307.

In the previous quarter, 118 companies had received a positive earnings revision. In addition, the quantum of earnings revision was greater for more companies this time around. As many as 241 companies received earnings revision of 10% or more compared with seven a quarter ago and 83 in the previous year’s March quarter.

India Inc delivered a multi-quarter high net profit growth for the March quarter aided by non-operating components. ET had earlier reported that the aggregate profit for 2,956 companies grew by 25.5%, the highest in at least nine quarters. Revenue grew by 10.8%, marking a second consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. The upbeat performance has prompted analysts to undertake earnings upgrades.

Banking and finance, capital goods, healthcare and power were among prominent sectors to receive upgrades. Additionally, though the information technology sector (IT) was battered due to rising clout of artificial intelligence driven solutions, each of the 28 sector companies in the sample showed an earnings upgrade after the latest March quarter results. Cheaper valuations compared with historical averages, strong order pipeline, and a depreciating rupee against major currencies that improves sales realisations of exporters have helped analysts raise earnings forecasts.

Among the companies, IndusInd Bank, Eternal (earlier Zomato), and Tata Motors PV reported over five times increase in their one-year forward earnings estimates. On the other hand, analysts reduced estimates for the three state owned oil marketing companies including Indian Oil Corp (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL), and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) by 71-75% citing the impact of West Asian geopolitical crisis on the marketing margins.

Costco has quietly lowered prices on several popular Kirkland Signature items, including products shoppers had previously flagged online as increasingly expensive.

During the company’s most recent earnings call on May 28, executives said the price cuts impacted at least four of its key private-label items, marking a potential relief for consumers as inflation has remained elevated in recent years. 

The affected products saw price reductions ranging from roughly $1 to $10 across categories spanning food, home goods and sporting equipment, CFO Gary Millerchip said during the third-quarter 2026 call.

The KS Crispy Wings fell from $16.99 to $14.99. KS Milk Chocolate Almonds dropped from $19.99 to $18.99. KS Golf Balls declined from $32.99 to $29.99, while KS King Size Sheets were reduced from $89.99 to $79.99.

COSTCO REVEALS KIRKLAND SIGNATURE ITEM PRICE CUTS

The wholesale warehouse said the decision was aimed at offering members maximum value while continuing to undercut competitors, as part of its broader pricing strategy.

“Our goal is to be the first to lower prices and last to raise them,” CEO Ron Vachris said. 

Millerchip reinforced that approach, adding: “Our goal is to be the first to lower prices where we see opportunities to do so.”

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
COST	COSTCO WHOLESALE CORP.	971.87	-0.48	-0.05%

According to social media users, shoppers who have long favored Kirkland’s chocolate-covered almonds said the item has become noticeably more expensive over the years in both the U.S. and Canada.

“They’ve become too expensive,” one U.S. shopper wrote on Reddit a year ago.

“I love the Kirkland brand 1.5 kg chocolate covered almonds,” another Costco shopper in Canada said a year ago. “They used to be $17 then they went to $20. Now they are $27!! “

SPACE HEATERS SOLD AT COSTCO, OTHER MAJOR RETAILERS FOR YEARS RECALLED OVER FIRE HAZARD

Costco Wholesale did not specify what prompted the latest price cuts, but the move follows a previous instance over a year ago when the retailer voluntarily lowered prices on select Kirkland Signature products.

In 2024, the price of KS macadamia nuts fell from $18.99 to $13.99, Spanish olive oil 3-liter from $38.99 to $34.99, standard foil from $31.99 to $29.99, laundry packs from $19.99 to $18.99, and the baguette two-pack from $5.99 to $4.99, Millerchip previously said.

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Millerchip added that KS boneless chicken tenders also fell by 13%, resulting in a 21% increase in pounds sold.

“Kirkland Signature offers significant member value compared to the national brands and continues to grow at a faster pace than our business as a whole,” Millerchip said. 

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman contributed to this report. 

India plans to make a renewed pitch for inclusion of its sovereign debt in major global bond gauges, including the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Index, after exempting foreign investors from capital gains and withholding taxes and vastly widening the investable pool of long-dated securities, officials said.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and finance ministry officials may also reach out to the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements (BIS) for talks, they said. BIS has been given a special tax-exempt status in the latest rejig. BIS invests significantly in government securities (G-secs) and enjoys tax-free status everywhere.

With the latest development, it is expected to bring $7-11 billion into India, one of the officials said. “We would be talking to them (global bond index operators)…There is regular engagement in any case,” said a second official, adding that major concerns have been considerably addressed.
Global Relevance
Issues expressed by bond operators earlier include tax benefits, market access and settlement, as per the official cited.

Clarity on trade settlement oversight is also likely to lift the likelihood of India’s inclusion in the Bloomberg Global gauge, which is tracked by multiple bulge-bracket funds worldwide for passive allocations into fixed income instruments. Even before formal inclusion talks are held, India should draw investments of about $5 billion into specified bonds immediately, market participants told ET.
“We expect these tax exemptions to make investing in Indian government bonds compelling for many foreign investors, and also significantly strengthen the case for inclusion in the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Index, especially if these bonds are made eligible for Euroclear settlement,” said Parul Mittal Sinha, head of markets (India and South Asia), Standard Chartered Bank. “We expect incremental inflows of approximately $5 billion in Indian government bonds from FPIs in the immediate future in response to these announcements, aided by tax exemptions and expectations of improved performance of the rupee versus other Asian currencies.”India has been a part of the JP Morgan Global Bond Index-Emerging Markets from June 2024, Bloomberg’s EM Local Currency Government Index from January 2025, and the FTSE Russell Emerging Market Index since last September. However, Bloomberg’s Global Aggregate Bond Index—one of the world’s most widely used indices—deferred its India inclusion in January, signalling further evaluation of key operational and market infrastructure issues. Back then, Bloomberg’s index services had cited infrastructure bottlenecks related to trading workflows and complex fund registration processes to defer its decision to include Indian instruments on its global gauge.

Typically, index inclusion makes global funds tracking those benchmarks to allocate capital proportionately to the country’s weight. This can potentially spur additional annual foreign fund flows worth tens of billions of dollars into India, lower the government’s borrowing cost and deepen the bond market, analysts said. Higher inflows can also help reverse the rupee fall.

Welcome Moves
A raft of government announcements on Friday brightened prospects of inclusion in the remaining major global indices, said analysts.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) faced a 12.5% long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax on listed shares and bonds held longer than 12 months and a 20% withholding tax on interest earned on G-secs.

The government brought in an ordinance to scrap these levies. It also added G-secs in tenors of 15-, 30- and 40 years, as well as sovereign green bonds, to the list of specified securities under the fully accessible route for FPIs investments. Earlier, the facility was only available for papers with tenors of up to 10 years.