Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, Ethiopia and Djibouti have agreed to develop a $660m (£500m) petroleum pipeline and storage project linking the two countries.

The project will include a 120km- (75 mile-) pipeline connecting Djibouti’s Damerjog port to a distribution facility in Dewele, Ethiopia, as well as storage capacity of about 400 million litres.

It is expected to begin operations within 18 months.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the pipeline would reduce the time needed to transport fuel from Djibouti’s port to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, from five days to one.

The first phase will transport key petroleum products, including jet fuel, diesel and petrol.

Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, Dangote said the project would strengthen Ethiopia’s energy security and make its fuel supply chain more resilient.

Landlocked Ethiopia relies heavily on Djibouti’s port for imports, including petroleum products. The new infrastructure is expected to reduce pressure on existing transport systems supporting industries, including transport, aviation, agriculture and construction.

Djibouti is also expected to benefit from increased port activity, job creation and higher government revenues.

The project is part of Dangote’s wider expansion of infrastructure and manufacturing businesses across Africa.

Dangote Cement has production capacity of about 55 million tonnes a year, while his oil refinery in Nigeria currently has capacity to process 700,000 barrels of crude a day and is seeking to double that to 1.4 million barrels a day.

The refinery recently listed 4.1 billion ordinary shares on the Nigerian stock exchange, aiming to raise about $1.63bn (£1.2bn).

In Kenya, the company is due to break ground next week on a proposed 700,000-barrel-a-day crude oil refinery in Lamu.

Welspun Corp shares rallied as much as 4.49%, touching an intraday high of Rs 2,813 during Friday’s trading session after the company announced that its wholly owned US subsidiary, Welspun Tubular LLC, had secured its largest-ever order for High-Frequency Induction Welded (HFIW) pipes.

The order, valued at approximately $412.5 million (around Rs 4,000 crore), is the largest in the company’s history in terms of volume, length and value. The pipes will be manufactured at Welspun’s newly upgraded HFIW mill in Little Rock, USA, which has enhanced production capabilities.

According to the company’s filing, the order is scheduled to be executed during FY28 and FY29.

Following the order win, Welspun Corp’s global order book has reached a record $4.7 billion (around Rs 45,000 crore), marking the highest level in the company’s history.

The company said the order highlights the scale and execution capabilities of its operations and supports its strategy of expanding global manufacturing capacity and strengthening relationships with international clients.

Share price performance, valuation and technical indicators

Welspun Corp shares have gained 20% over the past month, while the stock has surged nearly 93% over the last three months. The company currently has a market capitalisation of Rs 72,618 crore, while its 52-week high stands at Rs 2,836.
On the valuation front, Welspun Corp has a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 31.95 and a price-to-book (P/B) ratio of 7.84.From a technical perspective, the stock is trading above all eight key simple moving averages (SMAs).

In the latest June 2026 quarter, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) increased their holding in the company to 14.61%, from 11.23% in the previous quarter.

Disclaimer: The views/recommendations mentioned in this article, wherever applicable, are those of the respective SEBI-registered Research Analyst/brokerage and have been reproduced/reported with due attribution. They should not be construed as the views or recommendations of The Economic Times Digital or the journalist. Readers are advised to consider the original research report and make their investment decisions based on their own assessment. Brokerage disclaimers here

The shares of Oracle Financial Services Software (OFSS) tumbled more than 5% on Friday after its US-based parent Oracle sent a ‘force majeure’ notice to developer Blue Owl to protect itself from potential delays at a massive data centre project in New Mexico, triggering worries through the trillion-dollar market for AI infrastructure financing.

OFSS shares tumbled more than 5% to trade at Rs 10,332 apiece on NSE, marking the lowest level seen by the stock in more than nine weeks since July 23. It is currently the top loser on the Nifty IT index, which itself is down around 1%.

Oracle’s force majeure notice was issued for Jupiter, a data centre campus which Blue Owl unit STACK Infrastructure is building to support ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, marking the latest setback for a sector where lenders and investors are growing more cautious about financing the industry’s breakneck expansion. Blue Owl said Oracle’s notice did not alter the parties’ commitment to the project.

Also read | Oracle cites ‘force majeure’ to shield itself on controversial data centre

As a result, Oracle shares dropped around 3.5% on Wall Street, while those of Blue Owl fell around 4%. Oracle is aiming to delay payments should the data centre dubbed Project Jupiter get derailed and fail to come online in 2028 as planned, rather than exiting as the main tenant, Bloomberg News reported. Companies typically invoke force majeure to free themselves from contractual obligations when problems arise beyond their control.

“The financing side of the AI buildout is starting to ask much harder questions than the demand side,” Reuters quoted Sean McDevitt, a partner at management consulting firm Arthur D. Little. “The underlying demand still appears very strong, but investors and lenders are increasingly focused on how risk is allocated.”
Notably, the latest development comes as the program was being delayed by a year, Reuters quoted a person familiar with the matter as saying. Notably, Blue Owl has about $3 billion of equity invested in the project and earns a lower return during construction, with returns increasing once the data centre is completed, the report added.Earlier this month, OFSS shares faced a sharp downturn after the Financial Times reported that around $18 billion in loans tied to an Oracle-leased data centre in New Mexico has come under pressure, with loans quoted at 89 to 91 cents on the dollar by syndicate banks including Santander and Jefferies.

This came amid concerns regarding the escalating local opposition to the 1,400-acre “Project Jupiter” campus in Dona Ana County over fears it would impact water supply and air quality could derail Oracle’s massive AI infrastructure build-out, the FT report said. OFSS is the Indian subsidiary of Oracle.

Also read | Why is Oracle stock crashing today at NYSE, Wall Street? Check reason behind ORCL share price bloodbath on Thursday

OFSS share price

OFSS shares have fallen more than 12% in one week, underperforming the Nifty IT index which has fallen nearly 3% at the same time. The stock is overall down 11% in one month. However, OFSS shares have bucked the trend to deliver 36% returns overall in 2026 so far, even as other IT peers fell and pushed the Nifty IT index down more than 26%.

In the longer term, OFSS shares jumped 17% in one year, and delivered multibagger returns of 153% in three years and 122% in five years. The company has a market capitalisation of nearly Rs 90,900 crore.

Disclaimer: This article has been written by Debaroti Adhikary, who is not a SEBI-registered Research Analyst or an Investment Adviser. Debaroti Adhikary and his/her ‘relative(s)’ (as defined under Section 2(77) of the Companies Act, 2013) do not hold any financial interest in the companies mentioned in this article as of the date of publication. The views/recommendations mentioned in this article, wherever applicable, are those of the respective SEBI-registered Research Analyst/brokerage and have been reproduced/reported with due attribution. They should not be construed as the views or recommendations of The Economic Times Digital or the journalist. Readers are advised to consider the original research report and make their investment decisions based on their own assessment. Brokerage disclaimers here.

Shares of Balrampur Chini Mills jumped 4% on Friday to the day’s high of Rs 689 on NSE after the Government of India awarded a Rs 75 Crore BioE3 grant to advance India’s bioeconomy.

According to a filing with the exchange, this was awarded by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) under the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, for establishing a 100 TPA PLA CoPolymer R&D Facility under the Government’s flagship BioE3 (Biotechnology for Economy, Environment & Employment) initiative.

Also Read | Balrampur Chini gets government grant for biopolymer R&D facility

The grant will accelerate the development of advanced biobased materials, strengthen India’s indigenous biomanufacturing capabilities and reinforce the country’s ambition to emerge as a global bioeconomy powerhouse.

The pilot-scale R&D facility will be established at BCML’s integrated manufacturing complex in Kumbhi, Uttar Pradesh, where the company is also setting up India’s first integrated commercial PLA manufacturing facility.

The new facility will serve as the innovation engine for developing next-generation PLA grades and Co-polymers, enabling rapid product development, technology indigenisation, customer validation and seamless scale-up to commercial production.
The facility will develop specialised PLA grades and advanced PLA co-polymers for high-value applications. It will generate techno-economic data and process know-how for commercial-scale manufacturing. This facility will train highly skilled talent for India’s emerging biomanufacturing sector and enable collaboration with industry and research institutions to accelerate innovation in sustainable materials.Designed to bridge the gap between laboratory research and commercial manufacturing, the facility will support every stage of product development from understanding customer requirements and developing new PLA formulations to producing pilot samples, validating product performance and preparing successful technologies for commercial-scale manufacturing.

It will also create opportunities for collaboration with academia and research institutions through a limited-service model, helping strengthen India’s biotechnology innovation ecosystem.

“The Government of India’s support through this ₹75 crore BioE3 grant is a strong endorsement of the strategic role that advanced biomanufacturing will play in India’s future. This facility will help build indigenous technology, develop next-generation bio-based materials and create the scientific and technical capabilities required for India to lead the global transition towards sustainable manufacturing,” said Avantika Saraogi, Executive Director, Balrampur Chini Mills.

“We are grateful to the Department of Biotechnology and BIRAC for their confidence in our vision and look forward to contributing to India’s emergence as a global bioeconomy powerhouse,” Saraogi further said.

Also Read | PB Fintech shares in focus after massive 36% crash in a single day. Here’s why Jefferies cut target price

As countries around the world increasingly adopt bio-based materials and circular manufacturing practices, BCML’s PLA Co-Polymer R&D Facility is expected to play an important role in strengthening India’s innovation ecosystem, accelerating the commercialisation of advanced biopolymers and positioning the country as a global hub for sustainable materials.

Balrampur Chini Mills share price performance

Over the past month, Balrampur Chini Mills shares have gained 1.37% and nearly 54.52% so far this calendar year. Over the past year, the stock has rallied 42.99%, while it has gained nearly 53.83% over the past three years and 88.18% over the past five years.

Disclosure: This article has been written by Surbhi Khanna, who is not a SEBI-registered Research Analyst or an investment advisor. Surbhi Khanna does not hold any financial interest in Economic Times as of the date of publication. The views/recommendations mentioned in this article, wherever applicable, are those of the respective SEBI-registered Research Analyst/brokerage and have been reproduced/reported with due attribution. They should not be construed as the views or recommendations of the EconomicTimes Digital or the journalist. Readers are advised to consider the original research report and make their investment decisions based on their own assessment.

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