Performance Recap

Energy infrastructure equities performed very strongly in 1Q26, far outpacing the broad market, though underperforming the broad energy sector. After experiencing a reversal in 2Q25, and having a generally solid year in 2025, the energy sector has performed

HCL Tech has invested Rs 1,427 crore, or approximately $150 million, in Sarvam AI, securing a 10.46% stake in the company. The investment was part of a Series B funding round of around $300 million, which values the startup at nearly $1.5 billion.

Besides HCL Tech, investors including Nvidia, Prosperity7, Activate and Glade Brook collectively contributed around $100 million in the funding round, while Bessemer invested $50 million. Sarvam AI is also backed by early investors such as PeakXV and Khosla Ventures.

As part of the partnership, HCL Tech will support Sarvam AI’s research and development efforts focused on next-generation frontier AI agentic models, coding models and cybersecurity applications. The funding will also help the startup gain access to large-scale computing infrastructure and expand deployments across key industry sectors.

Also read: Oil Price Today (June 16): Crude oil rebounds after 5% plunge as traders await US-Iran peace deal details. Where are prices headed?According to HCL Tech, the investment will help it develop industry-specific, client-focused language models and AI solutions for its global customer base. The company expects these offerings to deliver strong price-to-performance results and strengthen its enterprise AI capabilities across industries.

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The partnership will also allow HCL Tech to leverage and further develop Sarvam AI’s multilingual capabilities in India and international markets, supporting both sovereign AI initiatives and enterprise deployments. In addition, the company aims to accelerate the development and adoption of sovereign AI solutions for governments, regulated sectors and enterprises seeking localised, secure and compliant AI deployments.

IT major HCL Technologies reported a 4.2% growth in its consolidated net profit for the March-ended quarter at Rs 4,488 crore versus Rs 4,307 crore in the year-ago period. The profit after tax (PAT) is attributable to the owners of the company.
The revenue from operations in Q4FY26 stood at Rs 33,981 crore, 12% higher than Rs 30,246 crore posted in the corresponding quarter of the last financial year.Separately, HCL Tech has guided for revenue growth of 1% to 4% for the financial year 2027 compared with the financial year 2026. The outlook factors in a 50-basis-point impact from client-specific issues and a 2% to 3% impact from AI-led deflation.

Shares of the company are down 32% YTD and about 35% in the last 1 year.

Sensex, Nifty today: Catch all the LIVE stock market action here
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

Project approved despite claims move will ‘concrete Westhoughton over’

A vision to transform an area close to the M61 into one of the UK’s biggest employment destinations has been approved.

Bolton council’s West of Wingates masterplan sets out the criteria and design expectations for the massive development on the western edge of Westhoughton, which when completed will support up to 6,000 jobs.

The allocation provides for around 440,000 sqm of industrial and warehousing floorspace.

Phase 1 planning permission for the project, next to the A6 on Chorley Road, was granted January 2024 is under construction.

Bolton council’s cabinet meeting heard that some councillors had ‘significant concerns about the road network’ around the site.

Another campaigner claimed the move will ‘concrete Westhoughton over’ with ‘green fields dug up over the next few years and thousands of extra vehicles per day’.

The cabinet meeting heard form executive member Nadeem Ayub who described the masterplan as providing a framework for ‘a high quality exemplar employment site’.

He added: “The decision on whether the site should be developed has already been made under the Places for Everyone plan. It has been allocated for employment use.

“The principle of development , the amount of floorspace was done after a full public consultation.

“This document is not a decision on whether to develop it’s about how to develop well.

“The document sets out a vision for a high quality exemplar employment site and puts forward eight design principle that every future application will be tested against.

“It protects landscape features and green corridors.”

Horwich & Blackrod First councillor David Grant told the meeting that it was ‘good that we are creating jobs but the highway network always seems to take a backward step’.

He added: “Coming from a neighbouring ward I still have significant concerns about the road network, particularly the motorway roundabouts, the Beehive roundabout – all are at capacity, all are still being developed.

“There doesn’t seem to have been any offer of improvements to those junctions. One minor accident or issue and the entirety of Horwich comes to a standstill.

“By adding a significant employment zone on the outskirts of that area will only add to people coming down the A6 and increasing the issues.”

Campaigner David Wilkinson was a councillor in Westhoughton for more than three decades before losing his seat last month.

Reacting to the decision he said: “The decision means over 400 acres of green fields will dug up over the next few years and thousands of extra vehicles per day.

“It’s one of the biggest industrial estates in the country.

“Phase II was included in Place for Everyone passed by Bolton Council in March 2024 it also included the development of Hulton Estate by Peel.

“It also removed green belt protection for hundreds of acres on the Phase II site at Wingates making easier to build.

“So the Labour, Tory and Independent councillors on Bolton council who voted for it, voted to concrete Westhoughton over.”

Bolton Council says that it worked with developers, the Harworth Group, and various public bodies as part of the consultation, as well as councillors and MPs in and around Westhoughton to produce the masterplan planning document.

An eight-week public consultation period ran from November 2025 to January 22 this year.

Planning application for the next phases of the West of Wingates development are expected to be submitted by Harworth Group in the coming months.

In an exchange filing released on Monday, GIC announced that the government aims to sell up to 3.51 crore shares, representing a 2% equity stake, as part of the base offer which opens for non-retail investors today (June 16). The government can also exercise the oversubscription option to additionally sell another 5.26 crore shares, representing another 3% stake in the company for the OFS that opens for retail investors and employees on Wednesday (June 17).

This collectively brings the total offer size to 8.77 crore shares, or a 5% equity stake in the general insurance company. At the floor price of Rs 352 per share, this would be worth more than Rs 3,087.74 crore.

Also Read | Nilesh Shah bats for minimum qualifying criteria for F&O trading after Maharashtra man kills family, self over Rs 1.8 cr loss

The latest stake sale comes as the government recently ramped up its disinvestment efforts. Recently, the government offloaded some of its stake in Coal India, NHPC, NLC India and other PSU companies.

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The government planned to sell 10% of its stake in the insurer ‌in tranches to meet the market regulator’s minimum public shareholding norm, Reuters reported in 2024. ⁠Of this, the government already sold a 3.4% shareholding in September 2024.

The President of India owned more than 82% stake in GIC as of March 31, 2026, according to data on the company’s shareholding pattern on NSE. Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) meanwhile held around 10% stake, while 22 mutual funds held around 1.5% stake.
Around 2.07 lakh retail investors collectively owned a 1.4% stake in the company.

GIC shares have fallen around 1% in one week but are up nearly 2% in 2026 so far. The shares of the company have rallied 103% in three years and 92% in five years.The company has a market capitalisation of more than Rs 67,588 crore.

Also Read | M-Cap of Vedanta’s split cos jumps 67% to Rs 3.5 lakh crore

(With inputs from agencies)

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

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