Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), India’s top platform for trading commodity derivatives, on Tuesday announced that it will launch an electricity futures contract from July 10.

This new offering aims to meet the growing demand for tools that help manage the risks of fluctuating electricity prices.

Praveena Rai, Managing Director and CEO of MCX, said that the new contract would play an important role in making India’s energy markets deeper and more structured.

She also added that the launch would support the country’s goal of achieving a sustainable and market-driven approach to electricity pricing.

The Indian IT services sector is expected to experience a soft quarter growth (Q1FY26) despite the seasonal strength, according to a report released on Tuesday.

IT companies’ earnings are expected to be mixed across the board with a very soft quarter for ER&D services companies on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis, Equirus Securities said in its report.

The report is being prepared considering Infosys and Tech Mahindra among large-cap IT companies, and Zensar, Mphasis, and KPIT eClerx among mid-cap companies on a relative basis.

The financial service firm sees some sort of modification in Infosys’s FY26 sales growth guidance and soft growth in the top six large-cap IT companies.

The cost of home-cooked vegetarian and non-vegetarian thalis declined 8 per cent and 6 per cent (year-on-year), respectively, in June, a report showed on Tuesday.

The decline in vegetarian thali cost on-year was due to a sharp drop in prices of vegetables on a high base, according to the Crisil Intelligence report.

“The cost of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian thalis declined on-year in June, driven by softening vegetable prices. Tomato prices, in particular, saw a sharp on-year decline,” said Pushan Sharma, Director, Crisil Intelligence.

In coming months, however, “we expect thali costs to inch up sequentially as seasonal changes push up vegetable prices. Onion prices are expected to rise moderately due to the absence of fresh arrivals and controlled release of stored rabi stock,” Sharma mentioned.

The domestic benchmark indices were trading marginally up on Tuesday in the early trade, after the US President Donald Trump announced that “we are close to a deal with India”.

At around 9.30 am, Sensex was trading 91.57 points or 0.11 per cent up at 83,534.07 while the Nifty added 22.25 points or 0.09 per cent at 25,483.55.

Buying was seen in the IT, PSU bank and financial service sectors. According to analysts, the announcement of unilateral tariffs on 14 countries and the exclusion of India from the list indicate that a trade deal between India and US will be announced soon.

"This has already been largely discounted by the market; the unknown areas are the details of possible sectoral tariffs on segments like pharmaceuticals. Market reaction will depend on these details," said Dr VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited.

Securitisation volume rose nearly 9 per cent to around Rs 49,000 crore in the first quarter (April-June) of 2025-26, compared with Rs 45,000 crore in the same quarter of the previous financial year, according to a Crisil Rating report released on Monday.

Issuances by non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), led by large players, posted a strong year-on-year growth of about 24 per cent. This helped offset the lower origination volume by banks, supporting the overall securitisation market volume, the report states.

Securitisation in banking is a process where illiquid assets like loans are pooled together, repackaged, and sold as securities to investors. This allows banks to free up capital, transfer risk, and provide investors with access to diversified investments.

The Indian stock market ended flat on Monday as investors remained cautious amid uncertainty around the interim India-US trade deal.

Sensex closed at 83,409.68, marginally up 9.61 points or 0.01 per cent. The 30-share index opened marginally lower at 83,398.08 against the last session's closing of 83,432.89. The index did not see much volatility as it touched an intra-day high at 83,516.83, a jump of 84 points.

Similarly, Nifty settled flat at 25,461.30, up 0.30 points.

From the Sensex basket, Hindustan Unilever, Adani Ports, Kotak Bank, Asian Paints, ITC, Power Grid, NTPC, Bharati Airtel, and Sun Pharma settled in positive territory. While Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance, L&T, TCS, SBI, and Infosys ended in the red.

Meanwhile, 22 shares advanced and 28 declined from the Nifty50 index.

Nifty largely traded in a narrow range throughout the session as investors remained cautious ahead of the anticipated US tariff announcements, said analysts.

“Market participants appeared reluctant to take aggressive positions, keeping the broader index range-bound," said Sundar Kewat from Ashika Institutional Equity.

India's service sector is demonstrating a significant role in the country’s journey towards becoming a $5 trillion economy, a report said on Monday.

For decades, the sector has not only been contributing massively to India's gross domestic product (GDP) but has also become the key driving force to the nation's economy, rising from 40 per cent contribution in GDP in the 1990s to accounting for 55 per cent gross value added (GVA) in FY25, according to the Axis Mutual Fund’s ‘Service Sector Report’.

“From contributing approximately 40 per cent of India's GDP in the early 1990s, the service sector surged to account for 50.6 per cent of India's gross value added (GVA) in FY14. This dominance has only amplified, reaching an estimated 55 per cent in FY25," the report stated.

All verticals of the service sectors, including information technology (IT) services, finance and banking, healthcare, telecommunications, and e-commerce, have shown immense growth in the last two decades.

While global forex reserves total around $12.5 trillion, the gold market is currently valued at $23 trillion, 15 per cent of which is held in India, according to a report released on Monday.

Of the total mined gold ever, 65 per cent is in the form of jewellery, and a mere 5 per cent shift of global reserves into gold could trigger a sustained and significant rally in its price, according to the DSP Mutual Fund's July 2025 Netra report.

Central bank gold reserves are rising, and they bought more safe-haven assets in the last four years than in the previous 21 years.

Central bank gold purchases from 2000 to 2016 totalled $85 billion. But in a single year, 2024, central banks bought gold worth $84 billion.

In fact, since 2022, Central banks have bought nearly 1,000 tonnes of the precious metal each year, which is more than a fourth of the annual mining supply of gold, according to the report.

Smartworks Coworking Spaces' losses widened to Rs 63.17 crore in FY25, a rise of Rs 13.22 crore against FY24 losses, the company said in its red herring documents on Monday ahead of its initial public offering (IPO).

The co-working space provider's net loss stood at Rs 49.95 crore in the preceding 2023-24 financial year.

The IPO opens for public subscription on July 10 and concludes on July 14. The price band has been fixed at Rs 387-407, and investors had to buy a lot of 36 shares to place a bid, according to the red herring prospectus.

The shares allocation to anchor investors will take place on July 9. The IPO is a combination of fresh shares worth Rs 445 crore and an offer for sale of 3,379,740 equity shares.

Global Capability Centres (GCCs) showed remarkable 30.8 per cent year-on-year growth in India in January-June period (H1 2025) this year, reaching 13.85 million square feet and exceeding previous annual totals, a report showed on Monday.

GCCs are leading the charge in India’s office market and on a H1 comparison, leased more space in January-June of 2025 than any previous calendar year for the same time period, according to a JLL report.

This follows the momentum from last year, when GCCs were the biggest occupier group by activity levels.

GCCs in the BFSI and Manufacturing sector have been the standout performers, accounting for a cumulative 55.6 per cent share in the H1 leasing volumes.

Bengaluru remains the gateway city for GCCs, accounting for over 41 per cent of demand in H1 2025.