Good morning. Five stories worth your time today — the drinks aisle carrying FMCG, Meta’s first Indian data centre, and a promoter rewriting a telco obituary.
Beverages are now FMCG’s growth engine. Indian FMCG stocks rallied on June 10, with the Nifty FMCG index the day’s top sectoral gainer, and the driver was the drinks shelf. Nestlé India posted high double-digit beverage growth, Tata Consumer grew coffee 20 per cent and ready-to-drink 23 per cent, and Dabur’s Real Activ juices rose 26 per cent while its coconut water more than doubled. ICICI Securities sees India’s beverage market rising from $17.2 billion in FY24 to $30 billion by FY30. For an index down 13 per cent this year, drinks are doing the heavy lifting. (Business Standard, Jun 10)
Meta signs its first India data-centre deal. Meta will lease a 168-megawatt AI data centre that Reliance is building in Jamnagar, Gujarat — its first built-to-suit capacity in India, announced June 10. Reliance handles design, construction, renewable power and operations; the site will be cooled with desalinated seawater and ready within two years. Meta is separately backing nearly 1 GW of Indian renewable energy with CleanMax and Fourth Partner Energy. Six years after the $5.7 billion Jio Platforms investment, Meta’s India bet has moved from apps and ads into physical infrastructure. (Meta Newsroom · CNBC, Jun 10)
Aditya Birla doubles down on Vodafone Idea. The Aditya Birla Group will invest ₹4,730 crore in Vodafone Idea, lifting its stake from 9.6 per cent to 13 per cent, the group said on June 12. The money is earmarked for network capex, loan repayment and competitiveness. A promoter adding capital to a telco most investors had written off changes the floor of the story: tariff discipline, rural data pricing and every consumer app’s distribution economics depend on India keeping a third funded network alive. (Business Standard, Jun 12)
Jefferies tells investors to buy Meesho. Jefferies initiated coverage on newly listed Meesho on June 10 with a Buy rating and a ₹225 target, roughly 34 per cent above market. The broker expects net merchandise value to compound at 25 per cent annually through FY30 and adjusted EBITDA margin to reach 3 per cent. The stock rose about 5 per cent on heavy volume the same day while absorbing a ₹1,540 crore block deal from pre-IPO lock-in expiry. Value commerce, long treated as a margin graveyard, is getting an institutional re-rating. (Business Today, Jun 10)
Staples just printed their strongest quarter in years. Consumer staples companies under Equirus coverage grew revenue 13 per cent year on year in Q4 FY26, with EBITDA up 15 per cent. Volumes accelerated across the board — Tata Consumer up 16 per cent, Jyothy Labs 11, Marico 9, Godrej Consumer 8 and Dabur 6. ICICI Securities called it one of the strongest quarters for staples and liquor companies, with food outgrowing home and personal care. Managements guided for a better second half of FY27 even with a subpar monsoon outlook. (Business Standard, Jun 10)