Mumbai: Foreign portfolio investors (FIIs) moderately stepped up purchases of Indian equities in August after turning buyers in July following four months of selling, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) continued to buy, though at a slower pace.

FPIs recorded net purchases of around $2.45 billion in July and $2.7 billion in August so far. DIIs bought around $3.65 billion in July and $4.6 billion in August so far, though their buying during the two months was around 50% below their average monthly investment over the previous six months, according to ET calculations.

Rajesh Palvia, head of research at Axis Securities, said the recent FPI buying has been selective and partly driven by opportunities in stake-sale transactions such as offers for sale (OFS), qualified institutional placements (QIPs) and other block deals.

Indian markets saw combined IPO, QIP and OFS issuances of over ₹1.15 lakh crore during July and August as promoters and early-stage private equity sold some of their stakes through block and bulk deals.

FPI buying in July and August followed four months of selling, even as foreign flows into some other Asian markets weakened. For much of CY26, Taiwan and South Korea had attracted strong foreign flows, supported by earnings momentum and the AI infrastructure trade.

The trend reversed in July, with Taiwan and South Korea seeing foreign outflows of $22.95 billion and $6.26 billion, respectively. South Korea recorded its third consecutive month of foreign selling. The trend has diverged in August so far, with Taiwan attracting $6.28 billion of foreign inflows. South Korea saw further outflows of $7.6 billion.
Read more: Sebi proposes merchant banker exemption for small-value private debt issues“I don’t see this as sustained buying in India,” Palvia said. “Foreign investors could turn sellers again once they deploy money into stocks offering better valuations, as geopolitical uncertainties remain.”

DII flows, meanwhile, have slowed as fund managers turned cautious amid the lack of buying opportunities across the board. “Domestic fund managers are more selective about deployment at current valuations,” said Sneha Poddar, VP-research, wealth management, Motilal Oswal Financial Services. “Domestic institutions had already front-loaded a large share of their buying this year, leaving less fresh capital to sustain the same monthly pace now that FIIs have turned buyers.”

A group of 100 firms, including Google, Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI, have signed an open letter calling on countries and organisations around the world to beef up their cyber defences before AI grows powerful enough to override them.

The letter warns, external cyber-attacks which use AI will become both more widespread and more sophisticated in a matter of months as the technology rapidly improves.

The group says current “status quo” security measures “won’t be enough” and criticises the “historic under-resourcing” of security around critical infrastructure.

“We have a limited window to improve cyber defences,” the letter begins.

Other firms to have signed the letter include banks such as Capital One, payment processors MasterCard and Visa, and other major tech firms including Adobe, Oracle and IBM.

They call on governments to provide “capable, defensive AI” and testing to hospitals and water utilities, and on technology companies to aid such efforts.

Collectively, tech and government “should bring the full weight of their technology, resources, and expertise to this effort”, according to the letter.

The letter comes after a string of significant hacking and cybersecurity breaches have been made public.

This week, the US Department of Justice said hackers in China breached, external technology maintained by the US Senate, Nasa, the Federal Reserve, and the DoJ itself.

This summer has seen OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta all reveal their AI tools doing things they should not, with some AI agents going so far as to organize their efforts and impersonate real people in order to get past security hurdles.

A group of hundreds of OpenAI AI agents being tested in July were able to set up secret message boards to communicate with each other and work together, resulting in a successful attack on Hugging Face, a popular repository and platform for AI developers.

The incident has been described as the world’s first AI-enabled cyber-attack.

Hugging Face has also signed the Thursday letter. It used a Chinese AI tool from the firm Z.AI in its investigation into how OpenAI’s agents hacked into its operations.

At least seven US water and wastewater companies have also reported cyber attacks, leading the FBI to issue, external a public service announcement urging all utilities to better secure their operations.

While the letter puts forward more advanced AI tools, which many of the signatories have developed and sell, as part of a solution to what is described as a growing threat, such tools are not always easily available.

Mythos, developed by Anthropic, was said by the firm to be able to find weaknesses in systems in seconds which have long evaded human hackers. It found one in a legacy platform which had remained undiscovered for 27 years.

Anthropic has restricted access to Mythos on the grounds that it is too powerful to fall into the wrong hands.

However, the letter calls on frontier AI companies, or those tech companies building their own AI models and tools, to “provide responsible model access, significant funding, training, and hands-on support, especially for under-resourced critical-infrastructure defenders.”

The letter does not detail when or how this vision of broader model access will be enacted.

Andrew Yoon, head of research at CivAI, a non-profit focused on public understanding of AI technology, said that “an unprecedented wave of AI hacking activity” is on the way. He put the responsibility for it on many signatories of the letter.

“They are right in this letter to commit ‘significant funding’ to defensive measures. They should be held to that commitment”, Yoon said. “Notably, the letter does not call for any action to slow the advance of AI hacking abilities.”

The letter includes a plea to governments, organisations, cyber-security professionals and other AI firms to work together to prioritise defence and test their systems against the abilities of the most powerful AI models.

In the US, senators have proposed a new law call the Kill Switch Act which would give authorities the power to shut down rogue AI models.

Geoffrey Hinton, a technologist and Nobel Laureate who formerly work on AI at Google, on Thursday told BBC World Business Report that society could be “in real trouble” should the technology get to a point where it is “smarter” than humans.

Hinton in recent years has been outspoken on what he views as the extreme risks posed by developments in AI technology.

“We have one future where we figure out how to deal with the risks of AI”, Hinton added on Thursday. “And we have another future where we don’t figure out how to deal with that sensibly. And it’s a very bleak future.”

FRANKFURT, Germany — Two employees at Germany’s Frankfurt Airport have died after contracting a rare form of malaria believed to have been transmitted by a mosquito that arrived in the country aboard an aircraft, according to Fraport, the company that operates the airport.

A total of six airport employees were infected with the disease, which is known as airport malaria, Fraport confirmed to CNN. Four of the six have since recovered, according to a report by German news magazine Der Spiegel, while the remaining two died from their infections.

A company in mourning

Fraport expressed grief over the loss of its employees in a statement to CNN. “We are shocked and deeply saddened by the loss of our colleagues,” the company said, adding that its thoughts remain with the families and friends of those affected.

How the outbreak began

Germany’s national public health institute, the Robert Koch Institute, first flagged the cluster of cases in mid-July, noting that multiple airport employees had fallen ill between July 4 and July 6. According to the institute’s assessment, the outbreak is believed to have originated from an Anopheles mosquito, the genus of mosquito responsible for transmitting malaria, that was inadvertently carried into Germany aboard an aircraft arriving from a region where the disease is endemic.

Airport malaria is considered an especially rare mode of transmission for the disease. It occurs when an infected mosquito survives an international flight and goes on to bite someone at or near the airport where the plane lands, effectively transplanting a tropical disease into a region where it would not normally circulate. Health authorities in Frankfurt are continuing to investigate the incident.

Why diagnosis can be delayed

According to the Robert Koch Institute, malaria cases among German nationals are almost always linked to long-distance travelers who become infected while visiting a region where the disease is prevalent. Because airport-based transmission is so uncommon, the institute noted, infections acquired this way can be harder to diagnose quickly, since doctors treating patients who haven’t traveled to malaria-endemic regions themselves may not immediately suspect the disease.

The institute emphasized that early diagnosis and prompt treatment are critical to preventing malaria from progressing to severe illness or death, underscoring the danger posed by cases that go unrecognized in their early stages simply because of where and how a patient was exposed.

Fraport’s response

In the wake of the outbreak, Fraport said it has advised its employees to inform their doctors that they work at Frankfurt Airport and that cases of airport malaria have been documented among staff, a step intended to help ensure that any future potential cases receive prompt and appropriate medical evaluation.

The airport operator has also installed mosquito traps across its grounds as part of the response. Insects captured in the traps will be sent to the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, for genetic analysis aimed at determining the species and geographic origin of the mosquitoes present at the airport, according to Fraport.

Not the first such case

This is not the first time Frankfurt Airport has recorded a case of airport malaria. According to the Robert Koch Institute, the most recent prior instance occurred in 2023, also at Frankfurt. The recurrence of such cases at the same location underscores the ongoing risk posed by the airport’s role as a major international hub, where aircraft frequently arrive from regions where malaria remains endemic.

A major hub for global air travel

Frankfurt Airport is Germany’s busiest airport by passenger volume and serves as the primary hub for Lufthansa, the country’s flagship airline. Its status as a high-traffic international gateway, with flights arriving daily from across Africa, Asia and other malaria-endemic regions, places it at a heightened, if still statistically rare, risk for this type of incidental disease transmission compared with smaller regional airports.

Understanding malaria transmission

Malaria is caused by parasites transmitted to people through the bites of infected Anopheles mosquitoes. The disease is not spread from person to person through casual contact, meaning the risk in cases like this one is generally confined to individuals who are physically present in the specific location where an infected mosquito is active, rather than posing any broader public health threat to the wider community. Symptoms typically include fever, chills, headache and fatigue, and in severe cases the disease can lead to organ failure and death if left untreated, which is why global health authorities stress the importance of rapid diagnosis, particularly in regions where the disease is not typically encountered.

What happens next

With the investigation into the outbreak still underway, both Fraport and German public health authorities are working to determine the precise origin of the mosquito responsible for the infections, information that could help inform future prevention measures at the airport. The genetic analysis being conducted in Antwerp is expected to help identify which flight route or region the mosquito may have originated from, potentially guiding more targeted screening or control measures at high-risk arrival gates in the future.

For now, Fraport has framed its response around supporting affected employees and their families while working to prevent additional cases, even as the broader investigation into exactly how the insect entered the country, and why it led to such a severe cluster of illness, continues.

The incident adds Frankfurt to a short list of European airports that have documented locally transmitted malaria cases in recent years, a phenomenon public health officials say remains exceedingly rare but serves as a reminder of the unusual ways in which global air travel can occasionally carry unexpected health risks across borders, even over distances of thousands of miles in a matter of hours.

ET Intelligence Group: The stock of Persistent Systems has gained 31% from the 52-week low at the end of June after the mid-tier IT exporter announced the $1.4 billion acquisition of Germany based Nagarro. The BSE Infotech index has gained 10% during the period. The rebound in Persistent’s stock can be attributed to Persistent’s sustained focus on AI-driven client engagements and a better than expected June quarter result. Apart from a strong sequential revenue growth, the company booked a multi-year, mega deal worth $650 million from a US client, which improves revenue visibility. For the September quarter, operating margin may come under pressure considering the salary increase in July. In addition, the $1.6 billion bridge loan taken to fund the acquisition of Nagarro will result in interest expenses, further denting the bottom line. The stock may remain range-bound in the medium term given the acquisition related strain on the financials.

Persistent Systems reported a strong 3.8% sequential revenue growth for the June quarter, largely led by a 22% increase in India business while the US, its largest market, grew by a modest 0.8%. The growth in India seems more like an aberration, driven by a few clients that procured services through the global capability centres (GCC) in the country. Therefore, the outlook for rest of the fiscal year depends on the recovery in the US market.

The total contract value (TCV) of order bookings shot up to $1.1 billion from $520.8 million in the year-ago quarter, aided by the large deal win. According to the management, ramp-up of this project has begun and its full effect on the company’s revenue will be visible by the December quarter.

The operating margin (EBIT margin) contracted by 30 basis points sequentially to 16% amid a 150 basis point fall in employee utilisation at 86.5% as the company hired employees to ramp up the large project. The staff strength increased to 28,640 from 27,502 a quarter ago. The wage increase undertaken at the beginning of the September quarter is likely to pull down the margin by 180-200 basis points, which may be mitigated to some extent through improved utilisation amid the ramp up of new projects.

Read more: Global Market Today: Asian shares slip as US stock futures dip ahead of Warsh’s Jackson Hole speech

Despite the recovery since the end of June, the stock price is still 10% lower on year-to -date (YTD) basis though it remains in a relatively better position compared with a 20% drop in the BSE Infotech index. It is likely to stay range-bound in the short term depending on the actual impact of the funding of Nagarro’s acquisition on the financials. For the long-term, analysts have raised the valuation multiples amid higher new deal momentum. JM Financials has raised the FY28 expected price-earnings (P/E) multiple to 34 from 28, resulting in a higher target price o ₹5,870 compared with ₹4,755 earlier. The stock ended Thursday’s session at ₹5,647 on the BSE.

A judge has ruled the US Department of Defense acted unlawfully when it designated artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic a supply chain risk, calling the move “illegal and baseless”.

The company argued in the lawsuit that Defense Secretary Pete Hegeth overstepped his authority with the new designation. It followed Anthropic’s refusal to allow the military to use its AI models for things that included surveillance or autonomous weapons.

US district judge Rita Lin said in the ruling that citing national security “is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics”.

Anthropic said it welcomes the ruling. The BBC has contacted the Pentagon and White House for comment.

Anthropic is focused on “working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology,” the spokesperson said.

Anthropic’s lawsuit called the government’s actions both “unprecedented and unlawful”. The designation calling them a supply-chain risk cited a law aimed at protecting military systems from foreign sabotage.

It marked the first time an American company had been publicly designated as such.

The Claude-maker said its models were not reliable enough to be safely used in weapons systems for the military. It added that it opposed its use for domestic surveillance as a violation of rights.

The Pentagon said at the time that private companies should not be able to constrain military action.

The White House had previously said Anthropic was “a radical left, woke company” attempting to control military activity” and argued the military was beholden to the US Constitution, “not any woke AI company’s terms of service”.

Anthropic said in its lawsuit that its business had been impacted by the government’s actions and its right to freedom of speech had been violated.

Judge Lin said during an earlier round in the lawsuit that the government was trying to “cripple” the company and “chill public debate” over military use of AI.

“This appears to be classic First Amendment retaliation,” the judge added.

HONG KONG: The U.S. dollar held flat near a one-week high against major peers on Friday, as investors stood on the sidelines ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh‘s speech at the Jackson Hole symposium for clues on his policy outlook.

The euro and sterling were subdued near one-week lows against the greenback, last at $1.1652 and $1.3597, respectively, though both remained on track for a second straight monthly gain.

The yen was little changed at 159.34 ‌per dollar, having ⁠surrendered ⁠part of its intervention-driven gains, but it was still headed for a 1.3% monthly rise.

The dollar index, which measures the currency ​against six major peers, was little changed at 99.13 in early Asian trade.

It has risen 0.3% this week but remains on track for a second straight monthly decline of 0.7% after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Treasury would increase buybacks of longer-dated bonds. That has fuelled concerns that efforts to suppress borrowing costs could debase the dollar.

Market participants are now keenly awaiting ⁠Warsh’s debut ‌speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for clues on how he would approach monetary policy and tame inflation, although those expectations were tempered by his opposition to providing explicit forward ⁠guidance on rates.
Some other Fed officials reiterated on Thursday their ongoing concerns ​about U.S. inflation and signalled they were open to rate hikes.”Uncertainty ​over the Fed’s reaction function and concerns that policymakers may be placing less emphasis on inflation control have increased market focus on Chair Warsh’s Jackson Hole remarks,” Sim Moh Siong, FX strategist at OCBC, said in a note.

For the dollar to weaken meaningfully following the Treasury’s buyback announcement, markets would need evidence that the Fed was prepared to help contain Treasury yields, though this appeared unlikely, he added.

Traders ‌were pricing in roughly 35% odds of a rate hike at the Fed’s September meeting, rising to 75% by December. Treasury yields remain elevated, with those on benchmark ​U.S. 10-year notes ​last at 4.676%.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin ⁠gained 0.5% to $80,620.33, on track for a nearly 30% gain in August that would be its biggest monthly gain since late 2024.

The Australian dollar was up nearly 0.1% to hit a three-month high of $0.72 ​as rate hike bets built up. The New Zealand dollar climbed 0.2% to $0.5960.

The Canadian dollar held flat at $1.3844 and was heading for a second month of decline after trade tensions with the U.S. escalated further.

Elsewhere, Brent crude futures hovered near $90 a barrel after a Wall Street Journal report suggested President Donald Trump had rejected the idea of re-establishing the terms of the memorandum of understanding the U.S. signed with Iran in June.

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