Larsen & Toubro Limited

India's Securities and Exchange Board, SEBI, has launched a pilot programme called Demat 2.0 that brings tokenisation to India's 620 billion dollar private corporate bond market. The programme builds on the electronic ledger system Indian investors already use to hold shares and bonds, allowing private corporate bonds to be issued as digital tokens on a distributed ledger operated by licensed and regulated financial institutions. Under the programme, REC, the state-run energy lender, raised 5 billion rupees, or about 56 million US dollars, followed by Larsen & Toubro, which raised another 5 billion rupees, while IIFL Finance raised 250 million rupees, or about 2.8 million US dollars. These debt instruments keep their traditional features, including fixed interest rates, maturity dates and investor rights, but the tokenised bonds and the digital rupees used to buy them can move together, because Demat 2.0 links the bond token ledger to the institutional digital rupee of the Reserve Bank of India, the RBI, through a unified market interface. This reduces counterparty settlement risk, and corporate actions such as interest payments and redemptions can be handled through smart contracts. The next phase of the pilot is expected to open secondary market trading and expand access to retail investors. The approach stands out in a country that remains wary of private cryptocurrencies, because Indian regulators are bringing tokenisation into the financial system they already oversee, with banks, depositories and central bank money at its core.

Nvidia has awarded India's Larsen & Toubro a major contract to build a dedicated AI factory for the chipmaker. The project expands Nvidia's AI infrastructure presence into India, targeting capacity in a regional market. The AI factory is intended to support Nvidia's broader ecosystem of partners and customers that rely on its accelerated computing platforms. The contract adds India to a growing list of regions where Nvidia is helping anchor large AI factories that use its platforms, alongside projects with Volta in Norway, SK Group in Korea and partners like Zayo. Nvidia runs a global semiconductor business focused on data center scale AI infrastructure across the US, Asia and Europe, with a market cap of $5.4 trillion.

Indian shares traded sharply higher on Wednesday after data showed India's industrial production grew 7.3 percent in June, the fastest in nearly two years. The benchmark 30-share BSE Sensex surged 750 points, or 1 percent, to 77,516 in early trade, while the broader NSE Nifty index was up 224 points, or 0.9 percent, at 24,208. IT stocks extended strong gains from the previous session, with Tech Mahindra, TCS and Infosys surging 2 to 4 percent on AI valuation concerns ahead of key tech earnings. Larsen & Toubro jumped more than 3 percent as it reported a 14 percent year-on-year rise in quarterly consolidated net profit, and Tata Capital soared 4 percent on reporting a 56 percent year-on-year rise in its first-quarter profit. DCM Shriram climbed 4.4 percent as it posted a more than six-fold increase in quarterly profit, while Adani Enterprises and Bajaj Housing Finance were moving higher ahead of their quarterly earnings results due today.

The global pressure vessels market is projected to grow from USD 57.55 billion in 2026 to USD 73.24 billion by 2031, a compound annual growth rate of 4.9 percent. Storage vessels are expected to hold the second-largest market share by type in 2026, driven by demand from oil and gas, chemical manufacturing, and power generation. Within the processing vessels segment, reactors are forecast to be the fastest-growing subcategory through 2031, supported by increased investment in controlled chemical and industrial processes. North America is positioned as the second-fastest-growing regional market, with growth fueled by clean energy projects, infrastructure modernization, and tighter safety regulations. Major companies in the market include Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, GE Vernova, Larsen & Toubro, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and IHI Corporation.