ET Intelligence Group: Shares of Milky Mist Dairy Food were locked in upper circuit of 10% after delivering strong growth in the June 2026 quarter, driven by broad-based momentum across its product portfolio. In the first reporting quarter after listing on bourses in August, EBITDA margin expanded on the back of operational efficiencies, higher volume, an improved product mix, and better pricing realization. The company expects to sustain growth momentum through existing capacities, protein-led products and deeper penetration outside South India.

Yogurt and ice cream emerged as the standout categories, posting year-on-year revenue growth of 153% and 60%, respectively, aided by an extended summer season. Cheese revenue increased 38%, while paneer, the company’s largest category, grew 34%. Milky Mist believes that the Perundurai facility still has significant spare capacity and, at current product prices, can potentially support revenue of 3-3.5 times FY26 levels before a new manufacturing facility is required. This provides substantial headroom for growth while supporting operating leverage.

While paneer remains the cornerstone of the business, Milky Mist is increasingly focusing on protein-rich products such as high-protein paneer, high-protein cheese, Greek yogurt and Skyr. It also plans to commission a whey protein concentrate plant over the next 15-18 months, allowing it to extract greater value from the whey generated in its cheese and paneer operations. In addition, it commissioned a 120-tonne-per-day natural cheddar cheese plant during the quarter.

Geographic expansion is another important growth driver. Although South India contributes nearly 69% to revenue, other markets are growing faster and are expected to account for around 40% of the business over time. The company expects to achieve this by strengthening distribution network, expanding cold-chain infrastructure and scaling up milk procurement operations in states such as Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Read more: Indian banks slash FCNR deposit rates by up to 310 basis points

Milk inflation poses as a key near-term risk. However, the company believes its diversified portfolio of value-added dairy products provides adequate pricing power to manage input-cost pressures. It expects margins to benefit from a richer product mix, better capacity utilisation and continued operational efficiencies.
Overall, Milky Mist’s medium-term growth story extends beyond paneer. The focus is increasingly on sweating existing assets, scaling protein products, expanding cheese and yogurt, and increasing penetration outside South India while maintaining profitability growth.

BUNIA, Congo — Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo said Monday that the country’s fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak on record has surpassed 6,000 confirmed cases, with nearly 2,900 deaths, as the epidemic continues to outpace every previous Ebola outbreak the country has faced.

The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rarer strain of Ebola for which no approved vaccine or treatment currently exists, was first confirmed in mid-May after being traced to Mongbwalu health zone in Ituri province. Officials now believe the virus had actually been circulating undetected since February, months before it was formally declared. Since then, it has spread from three health zones to nearly 60 across five provinces, according to World Health Organization data, making it both the largest and fastest-moving Ebola outbreak the country has ever recorded.

More than 1,360 people have recovered from the virus so far, a figure Congolese authorities described as an encouraging sign amid the broader crisis. Even so, the World Health Organization has warned the outbreak remains out of control and is on pace to eventually surpass the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic, which killed more than 11,000 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and remains the deadliest Ebola outbreak ever documented worldwide.

The rapid spread has been driven by a combination of factors specific to eastern Congo’s volatile security situation. Ongoing armed conflict, mass displacement, a strike among health workers and intense population movement have all complicated containment efforts, with the situation described as especially dire at displacement sites, where residents already live in extremely precarious conditions. Last week, the virus spread into two additional health zones in the region.

The dangers facing response teams extend beyond the disease itself. On Saturday, an Ebola response team was attacked on the outskirts of Mambasa, a town in Ituri province, while responding to a call to help secure a body suspected of carrying the virus. A group of young people armed with machetes stormed the site of a funeral, forcing the response team to flee and injuring one worker in the process. “We demand greater security so we can operate in the field and do our work without endangering our lives,” said Floribert Magene, a member of the response team, in comments to the Associated Press.

Safe burial practices remain one of the most difficult aspects of the response. Bodies of Ebola victims can remain highly contagious, and traditional burial preparation and funeral gatherings have repeatedly been linked to further spread of the virus in this and past outbreaks. In response, Congolese authorities have mandated that burials of suspected Ebola victims be managed by trained personnel wherever possible, a policy that has at times drawn resistance and protests from grieving families and friends who want to participate directly in funeral rites.

Vaccination efforts against the outbreak remain limited by the specific strain involved. Last week, Congo began vaccinating health workers and other front-line responders using the Ervebo vaccine, which has proven effective in past outbreaks caused by the more common Zaire strain of Ebola. However, no licensed vaccine currently exists specifically for the Bundibugyo virus responsible for this outbreak, and clinical trials remain underway to develop one. Case fatality rates in previous Bundibugyo outbreaks have historically ranged between 30% and 50%, and the current outbreak’s roughly 44% fatality rate falls within that historical range, according to World Health Organization data.

The broader public health response has disrupted daily life across the six affected provinces, particularly hard-hit Ituri, which was already contending with ongoing rebel violence before the outbreak began. Measures including restrictions on public gatherings, social distancing requirements and airport closures have all been implemented in affected areas. The Congolese government has introduced some additional measures, including installing health and sanitation equipment at various sites, though advocacy groups have said more work is needed to build community trust in the response, particularly given the history of resistance to outside intervention in some affected communities.

While neighboring Uganda declared itself free of Ebola last month after recording a limited number of cases tied to the same outbreak, the World Health Organization warned last week that the risk of further cross-border transmission remains, given the scale and continued spread of the epidemic within Congo’s borders. International aid organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, have deployed more than 1,400 staff to the affected region, operating six treatment centers across four provinces as the response effort continues to expand alongside the rising case count.

Oil prices climbed over 2% on Wednesday, extending the sharp gains from the previous session, as fears of supply disruptions grew after the US and Iran exchanged strikes overnight. The escalation has reduced hopes of a quick easing of tensions in the Middle East.

The United States said it carried out a series of airstrikes against targets in Iran overnight, drawing a response from Tehran in what was described as the most serious escalation in the conflict between the two countries in weeks.

Also read: Trump says US gave Iran many chances, dismisses value of any deal: Report

Crude oil price on September 2

Brent crude futures gained 99 cents, or 2%, to $96.54 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose $1.55 , or 1.52%, to $92. Both contracts had jumped more than $4 on Tuesday, with Brent posting its biggest gain since July 24 and WTI its largest since July 23.
The US Central Command said the strikes came after recent attempted attacks by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and on American service members deployed in the region.

Hormuz opening in jeopardy

The IRGC said the US attacks would further restrict traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway that carried about one-fifth of the world’s consumed oil before the conflict and which Iran has effectively closed to commercial shipping.
The IRGC also said it had targeted a US military base in Jordan with ballistic missiles, claiming that a large number of US forces were killed. Iranian state media separately reported a large-scale drone attack on a US base in Bahrain in response to the American strikes.The latest exchange came after a weekend flare-up in hostilities, the first since July, and followed attacks on two tankers leaving the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. The attacks added to disruptions in oil supplies and prompted traders to look for alternative crude shipments.

Read more: Iran warns US strikes will ‘tighten the lock’ on Strait of Hormuz

Jordan’s military said its air defences intercepted 10 of 13 ballistic missiles that entered its airspace, while two US officials said no American casualties had been reported so far. Kuwait, meanwhile, said its armed forces were responding to hostile drone activity.

Where are prices headed?

The length of the disruption will be a key factor for crude markets. JPMorgan estimates that each additional month of disruption could lift Brent prices by around $7 to $8 a barrel. If the disruption continues for three months, the bank expects average monthly Brent prices to reach around $114 a barrel.

Goldman Sachs has also warned that Brent could rise to $120 a barrel if shipping disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil transit route, continue. Its base case, however, assumes that tensions in the Middle East will eventually ease.

The bank expects Brent to average $80 a barrel in the fourth quarter and $75 a barrel next year, while noting that risks remain skewed to the upside if disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea persist for longer than expected.

Ponmudi R, CEO of Enrich Money, said crude prices would remain closely linked to developments around the Strait of Hormuz. He said a sustained recovery in shipping flows could further unwind the geopolitical premium in crude and provide relief to emerging-market equities, while renewed disruptions could quickly reverse that trend.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell in early trading Tuesday as Wall Street opened September on a cautious note, with renewed fighting in the Strait of Hormuz, a continued rise in bond yields and growing uncertainty over the Federal Reserve’s next move all weighing on stocks.

The Dow traded at 52,895.96 as of 9:32 a.m. Eastern time, down roughly 0.58% from Monday’s close of 53,185.99. Futures on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 also fell heading into the session, dropping about 0.6% and 1.4%, respectively, following a solid close to the month of August, according to Yahoo Finance.

The renewed pressure on markets traces back to overnight developments in the Middle East. Two oil tankers, one Saudi-owned and one South Korean-owned, were struck by projectiles Monday night as the United States and Iran resumed hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz, extending a six-month war that has largely settled into what analysts have described as a stalemate. Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com, characterized the mood on trading desks as investors weighed multiple sources of uncertainty simultaneously. “Markets are starting September cautiously, with investors balancing renewed geopolitical uncertainty, elevated bond yields and the latest US economic data,” Hathorn said, according to TheStreet. “The S&P 500 remains close to record territory, but momentum has softened after a strong summer.”

Bond yields continued climbing Tuesday, adding further pressure on equities. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.78%, its highest intraday level since January 2025, according to Yahoo Finance, as elevated oil prices stoked inflation concerns and reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve could move toward another interest rate increase at its September meeting.

Monday’s regular trading session had already set a downbeat tone heading into Tuesday. The Dow fell 0.7% Monday to close at 53,186 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite declined 0.33% and 0.12%, respectively, according to Trading Economics. Nine of the S&P 500’s 11 sectors finished lower on the day, led to the downside by communication services, utilities and industrials, with individual decliners including Alphabet, down 3.16%, Amazon, down 2.45%, and Honeywell International, down 1.9%.

The pullback comes as Wall Street enters what has historically been a difficult stretch for stocks. According to Carson Group chief market strategist Ryan Detrick, September is statistically the weakest month of the year for equities, with the S&P 500 averaging a 0.6% decline during the month and posting a positive return in only 45% of years historically, a track record matched only by February among all 12 months. Detrick’s analysis also noted that market volatility tends to increase during September, a dynamic some analysts have said could be compounded this year by this fall’s midterm election campaigns.

Despite the softer near-term backdrop, some strategists have cautioned against reading too much into seasonal patterns alone. LPL Financial chief technical strategist Adam Turnquist said he expects continued volatility in the weeks ahead but suggested that pullbacks could also present buying opportunities for investors willing to look past short-term turbulence, given that stocks enter September carrying double-digit year-to-date gains and earnings expectations that have continued trending higher.

Investors are also looking ahead to a busy stretch of economic data this week that could further shape the market’s direction. Manufacturing and services activity readings are due Tuesday, followed by the closely watched August jobs report Friday, both of which are likely to influence expectations for the Federal Reserve’s policy path heading into its next meeting later this month.