Domestic brokerage firm Axis Direct expects Nifty to reach 28,615 by December this year in a bull case scenario, based on a 20.5x valuation. A revival in domestic private capex, backed by policy continuity, improving business confidence, political stability, fiscal discipline and a rural recovery, is expected to drive growth. Markets are also closely watching the global outlook under U.S. President Donald Trump, with tariff-related uncertainties expected to ease in 2026.

With Nifty earnings expected to sustain a 13%+ CAGR over FY23–28, this backdrop could attract fresh capital inflows into Indian markets and support a re-rating of valuations, strengthening the equity outlook.

In a base case scenario, Axis maintains the Nifty target at 27,220 for December, while remaining constructive on Indian equities, supported by strong macroeconomic fundamentals, sustained government capital expenditure, GST 2.0 reforms and an improving corporate earnings cycle. The brokerage has based the target on 19.5x December 2027E earnings.

The brokerage expects Nifty earnings to grow at 13% CAGR over FY23–FY28, led by financials, underpinning healthy medium-term market returns, and notes that geopolitical tensions, crude oil volatility and currency movements may create near-term volatility.

Axis Direct recommends investors maintain good liquidity (10-15%) to use any dips in a phased manner, amid market volatility, and build a position in companies where the earnings visibility is quite high, with an investment horizon of 12-18 months.

While extreme volatility has subsided as per India VIX, the market is not entirely out of the woods. Intermittent spikes may persist, especially given ongoing global uncertainties.
The near term outlook for the Indian economy and corporate earnings may witness increased volatility, driven by commodity price movements, global risk aversion, and foreign fund flows.However, the medium-to-long-term outlook remains constructive, supported by domestic demand resilience, improving earnings visibility, and structural reforms.

Axis values Nifty at 16.5x in a bear case scenario, implying a target of 23,030 in December this year.

While valuations may remain above average amid potential policy shifts under the Trump regime, persistent inflation in developed markets and historically elevated interest rates increase downside risks.

Uncertainty around currency movements, oil prices, and global trade is likely to weigh on export-driven growth in 2026. Additionally, concerns over global growth, exacerbated by tariffs and geopolitical tensions, could compress market multiples in the near term.

Elevated Valuations
The Nifty is currently trading slightly above its long-term average valuation multiples (18.4x) and continues to command a premium over most emerging markets. The premium is supported by superior earnings growth, stronger corporate governance, macroeconomic stability and favourable demographic trends. However, elevated valuations imply that future market appreciation will increasingly depend on earnings upgrades rather than multiple expansion.

Also Read | Inside LIC’s Rs 16 lakh crore portfolio: Its biggest stock buys and sells in June quarter

Going forward, market performance is likely to be driven increasingly by sustained earnings growth, healthy free cash flow generation, improving ROCE and balance-sheet strength, rather than further valuation expansion. Companies that can navigate cost pressures while maintaining growth and generating consistent cash flows are likely to emerge as key outperformers through FY27. Axis continues to favour a bottom-up approach, with greater emphasis on quality growth companies having sustainable business models, pricing power, strong earnings visibility and execution capabilities.

In this environment, Axis Direct has maintained an overweight stance on BFSI, Telecom, Capital goods, Healthcare, Auto, Power & Energy, but it remains cautious on IT in the medium term, led by AI disruption.

(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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Ireland’s online betting market has rarely been busier. A World Cup summer has pushed sports betting turnover to seasonal highs, while the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) continues to roll out the country’s first dedicated licensing regime in decades.

The result is a market in which sportsbooks are competing harder than ever for Irish customers, on odds, mobile apps and payout speed rather than marketing spend alone.

That competition has changed how punters choose where to bet. Instead of defaulting to the most familiar high-street name, a growing share of customers now compare Irish betting sites on the measures that matter over a full season: the depth of GAA and horse racing markets, everyday odds value, withdrawal times and how well a bet slip holds up on a phone. Independent comparison platforms such as Topend Sports now test operators with real deposits before ranking them, a sign of how much more discerning the Irish bettor has become.

A newly regulated market takes shape

The backdrop to all of this is the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, the most significant overhaul of Irish gambling law in almost seventy years. The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland, established in March 2025, is phasing in a licensing framework covering betting, gaming and lotteries, alongside consumer protections that include a ban on gambling with credit cards and a National Gambling Exclusion Register.

For operators, the message is straightforward: the era of light-touch oversight is ending. Sportsbooks that want a long-term future in the Irish market are investing in compliance, safer-gambling tools and identity verification, while bettors are being encouraged to check an operator’s licence position before depositing. Brands that appear on the Revenue Commissioners register, and in time on the GRAI’s own register, offer dispute-resolution and self-exclusion protections that offshore operators cannot match.

What separates the best betting sites in Ireland this year

Irish bettors have priorities that set the market apart from its British neighbour. GAA coverage is the clearest test: the sportsbooks earning strong reviews in 2026 price the All-Ireland championships well beyond the match result, into handicaps and scorer markets. The horse racing calendar, from Punchestown to the Galway Races, demands proper each-way terms and best-odds-style concessions, while football remains the biggest driver of turnover, with League of Ireland depth increasingly treated as a mark of an operator that takes the local market seriously.

The way people bet has shifted too. Most wagers are now placed on a phone, so app stability and mobile bet slips carry real commercial weight, and the credit card ban has pushed payments towards debit cards, Revolut and e-wallets. Free bets still headline most sign-up offers, but reviewers consistently advise that everyday odds value beats a one-off promotion over the course of a season. In short, the best betting sites Ireland has to offer in 2026 are winning on product quality rather than promotional noise.

Why the shake-up matters beyond the bookmakers

The Irish experience carries lessons well beyond gambling. The operators gaining ground are, notably, those that treated compliance as a product feature rather than a cost centre. That will sound familiar to UK business owners: a recent government survey on regulation found 96 per cent of firms believe regulators create unnecessary problems, yet in Ireland’s betting market clear rules appear to be rewarding the best-prepared companies rather than holding them back.

Advertising and affiliate marketing are adjusting in parallel. The GRAI has signalled tighter restrictions on gambling promotion, including a broadcast watershed, and comparison publishers are responding with more prominent licence disclosures and responsible gambling signposting. With licensing costs likely to thin the field, analysts expect some consolidation among smaller brands, leaving a market where competition is fought on odds, market depth and payout speed. For Irish bettors, the practical advice from reviewers is consistent: judge a sportsbook on its everyday product and its licence position, not the size of its welcome offer.

Shares of Hecla Mining Company rose Wednesday to $16.80, up 9.16%, extending gains following the company’s second-quarter results released Tuesday, which showed the largest silver producer in the United States and Canada achieving a debt-free balance sheet alongside record production at one of its key operations.

The Coeur d’Alene, Idaho-based miner reported cash flow from continuing operations up 61% year over year to $175 million, while free cash flow more than doubled from the prior year to $136 million, results the company described as reflecting the strongest balance sheet in its history.

Record Production at Lucky Friday

Hecla’s Lucky Friday mine set a new quarterly production record during the period, contributing to consolidated silver output from continuing operations that rose to 4.2 million ounces for the quarter. Greens Creek, the company’s flagship low-cost operation located near Juneau, Alaska, continued to deliver strong production, while the company’s Keno Hill operation in Canada’s Yukon territory posted its fourth consecutive quarter of positive free cash flow, a milestone the company said demonstrated the mine’s underlying profitability at current throughput rates and silver prices.

Despite the strong operational performance, Hecla’s overall revenue for the quarter came in at $334 million, representing an expected pullback from a record prior quarter, primarily reflecting lower realized silver and gold prices during the period. Income from continuing operations totaled $118 million, or 18 cents per share, down from $165 million, or 25 cents per share, in the first quarter, while adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations fell 25% sequentially to $199 million but remained more than double the $93 million posted in the same period a year earlier.

Debt-Free for the First Time in Years

A central highlight of Hecla’s results was the redemption of its remaining $263 million in 7.25% senior notes, a move that leaves the company debt-free, excluding financial leases, for the first time in its recent history. That redemption followed the earlier closing of the sale of Hecla’s Casa Berardi operation, which the company said sharpened its focus on its core silver business while also enabling the earlier redemption of a separate tranche of senior notes in April.

Hecla ended the quarter with a cash position of $483 million, alongside an undrawn $225 million revolving credit facility, giving the company substantial financial flexibility as it continues investing in its operating mines and exploration programs. The company also declared cash dividends on both its common and preferred stock, with a common stock dividend of $0.00375 per share payable to shareholders of record as of Aug. 26, alongside a larger preferred stock dividend tied to a mid-September record date.

Exploration Fuels Long-Term Optimism

Beyond its quarterly financial results, Hecla has continued reporting strong exploration and definition drilling results across several of its key properties, including extensions of high-grade mineralization at Keno Hill and the discovery of new high-grade veins at its Midas property. The company has said these results support its broader district-scale growth strategy, with additional drilling recently initiated at its Hollister property and further exploration planned at Aurora in the coming weeks.

Rob Krcmarov, Hecla’s president and chief executive officer, addressed the company’s strengthened financial position in a statement following the company’s first-quarter results earlier this year, saying the results demonstrated the strength of the platform Hecla has built, and specifically pointed to the Casa Berardi sale and subsequent debt redemption as leaving the company with the strongest balance sheet in its recent history.

A Cautious Note From Analysts

Not all analyst commentary surrounding Hecla has been uniformly bullish. Scotiabank recently trimmed its price target on the stock to $21 from $25, citing more cautious expectations for gold prices heading into 2027, even as the firm maintained a relatively more constructive stance on the outlook for silver pricing specifically. A separate non-binding memorandum of understanding with NVRO Metals, under which Hecla would process 35,000 tonnes of tailings, drew a modest premarket pullback in the stock at the time of its announcement, reflecting some investor concern about execution risk associated with the arrangement despite its potential long-term strategic upside.

Guidance for the Remainder of the Year

For the full year 2026, Hecla has maintained its consolidated silver production guidance in a range of 15.1 million to 16.5 million ounces, alongside consolidated gold production guidance of 65,000 to 72,000 ounces. The company’s shares had traded down as much as 20.9% year to date prior to this week’s rally, reflecting a period of broader caution across the metals sector even as the company’s underlying operational and financial performance has continued to strengthen.

With its balance sheet now debt-free and cash reserves continuing to build, Hecla’s near-term focus is expected to center on the completion of its surface cooling project at Lucky Friday, tracking toward completion by mid-2026, along with continued ramp-up efforts at Keno Hill following recent weather-related production disruptions tied to reduced power availability in the Yukon.

WICHITA, Kan. — A Kansas mother of four is continuing her recovery at home after a suspected spider bite during a Memorial Day weekend campfire triggered a cascade of medical complications that left her fighting for her life, including surgery, dangerous infections and a diagnosis of end-stage liver failure that doctors warned could be fatal.

Britagne Miller, of Goddard, a small city roughly 14 miles west of Wichita, said she was sitting around a campfire with her husband, Jake, and their four children at Cheney Lake on May 28 when several spiders crawled onto her and bit her multiple times, according to local outlets KAKE and FOX Kansas. At the time, none of the bites seemed cause for immediate concern.

A Bite That Kept Getting Worse

Four days later, the situation changed. The area surrounding one bite on Miller’s calf began to swell and grow increasingly painful, prompting her to seek medical care. Describing the sensation to KAKE, Miller said the bite kept swelling and swelling, comparing the feeling to a hot metal fire poker shooting down her leg into her foot, as though she were being stabbed.

Miller was admitted to Wesley Hospital in Wichita on June 4, where doctors performed surgery to address the wound. According to a GoFundMe campaign created by her husband and reporting from KAKE, surgeons removed nearly 300 milliliters of blood clots from the affected area and inserted a drain to help the wound heal.

Complications Multiply

Miller’s treatment quickly grew more complicated. Following the surgery, the wound became infected with both a staph infection and a separate gram-negative bacterial infection, according to KAKE. Her situation was further complicated by preexisting health conditions, including blood-clotting disorders first diagnosed during a previous pregnancy, along with an already compromised liver and allergies to certain medications that limited her treatment options.

As her condition worsened, doctors determined that Miller was suffering from end-stage liver failure and warned her family that her condition could ultimately prove fatal, according to KAKE. Doctors reportedly gave her a prognosis ranging from just days to as little as a month to live. Miller was placed in both medical and cardiac intensive care during the most critical stretch of her hospitalization.

Despite the grim outlook, Miller made the decision to continue pursuing treatment rather than enter hospice care. Recalling the moment she absorbed the severity of her diagnosis, Miller told KAKE that her first thought was that she was done, before her focus immediately shifted to her husband and children. She has said she remembers little from her time in intensive care, a period she described as largely a blur given the severity of her condition.

A Long Road to Recovery

Miller spent roughly 10 days in intensive care before being discharged from the hospital on July 11, bringing her total hospitalization to approximately 44 days. She is now continuing her recovery at home, though her medical journey is far from over. According to her family, Miller now requires ongoing home health care, physical therapy to help her relearn how to walk on her injured leg, and regular visits with specialists in the months ahead.

Perhaps most significantly, Miller still needs a liver transplant, but she is not yet eligible to be placed on a transplant waiting list. Doctors have said her blood clotting levels and other lab values must first stabilize before that process can move forward, leaving her family in a continued state of uncertainty even as she has moved past the most immediate danger.

An Unconfirmed but Suspected Culprit

Despite the severity of Miller’s reaction, doctors have not definitively confirmed which species of spider was responsible for the bite. Based on the appearance of the wound and the region in which the incident occurred, medical staff believe it is consistent with a bite from a brown recluse spider, according to Miller and reporting from KAKE.

Dr. Raymond Cloyd, a horticultural entomologist at Kansas State University, told KAKE that the brown recluse and the black widow are the two venomous spider species most commonly found in Kansas. According to the Cleveland Clinic, brown recluse spiders are typically not aggressive toward humans, and their bite is usually painless at the moment it occurs. In most cases, a bite produces only a red, itchy reaction that resolves without serious complications. However, if left untreated, a brown recluse bite can progress to bruising, blistering, an open sore and lasting scarring. In rare and severe cases, symptoms can include rash, fever, dizziness, vomiting and chills, alongside more serious systemic effects, particularly in individuals with preexisting health vulnerabilities such as compromised organ function or clotting disorders, conditions that closely mirror those Miller was already managing before the bite occurred.

Practical Precautions

For those looking to avoid similar encounters, Cloyd advised sealing cracks and gaps around homes and outdoor structures, and exercising caution when handling boxes, shoes and other items that have gone undisturbed for extended periods, common hiding spots for spiders such as the brown recluse.

A Family Leaning on Community Support

As Miller continues her recovery, her family has turned to a GoFundMe campaign to help offset the costs associated with her extended hospitalization and ongoing medical needs. In an update shared through the campaign, the family expressed hope for better days ahead, writing that although there remains a long road ahead, they are holding on to hope that this season will eventually be behind them and that Miller will be able to return fully to the roles she cherishes most, being a mother now, and someday a grandmother.

Fox News Digital reported it was unable to immediately reach the Miller family for additional comment. As Miller works toward eligibility for a liver transplant, her case has drawn renewed attention to the potential severity of spider bites, particularly for individuals with underlying health conditions that can complicate what might otherwise be a minor, self-resolving injury for most healthy people.