Business
Sensex Breaks 3-Day Winning Streak, Ends 387 Points Lower; Nifty Below 25,350; Paytm Falls 4%
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Indian stock markets applied brakes to their three-day winning run amid profit booking
Sensex Today
Sensex Today: Indian stock markets ended the final trading session of the week lower, snapping a three-day winning streak as investors booked profits at higher levels and weakness weighed on key sectors such as IT, FMCG, and private banking.
The BSE Sensex closed at 82,626.23, down 387.73 points or 0.47%, while the Nifty50 settled at 25,327.05, lower by 96.55 points or 0.38%.
Among the Sensex constituents, Adani Ports, SBI, Bharti Airtel, NTPC, and Asian Paints were the top gainers, rising up to 1.13%. The biggest laggards were HCL Tech, ICICI Bank, Trent, Titan Company, and Mahindra & Mahindra, which fell as much as 1.52%.
In the broader markets, the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices ended marginally higher, up 0.04% and 0.15%, respectively. Sectorally, the Nifty PSU Bank index outperformed with a 1.28% gain, while Nifty Metal, Pharma, and Realty also closed in the green. In contrast, FMCG, IT, Auto, and Private Bank indices slipped up to 0.65%.
Investor sentiment was also shaped by stock-specific moves. Paytm shares dropped 4% after recent volatility, while Adani group stocks extended their rally, providing support to the broader market.
The overall market breadth remained positive, with 1,601 stocks advancing, 1,427 declining, and 105 remaining unchanged on the NSE.
As of Friday’s close, the total market capitalisation of NSE-listed companies stood at $5.24 trillion.
Global cues
Asian markets were largely positive on Friday, mirroring overnight gains on Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.8%, scaling a fresh record high for the second straight session ahead of the BoJ’s policy announcement. The central bank concludes its two-day meeting today, with a Reuters poll suggesting rates will likely stay steady at 0.5%.
Data showed Japan’s core inflation eased to 2.7% in August, the lowest since November 2024, marking the third consecutive monthly decline. Headline inflation also moderated to 2.7% from 3.1% in July. The Topix index climbed 0.72%, while Australia’s ASX 200 rose 0.74%. However, South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.5%.
On Wall Street, equities rallied as the U.S. Federal Reserve signaled the beginning of a rate-easing cycle. The S&P 500 gained 0.48%, Nasdaq jumped 0.94%, and Dow Jones rose 0.27%. All three benchmarks hit fresh intraday record highs on Thursday after a volatile reaction to the Fed’s rate cut a day earlier.
Aparna Deb is a Subeditor and writes for the business vertical of News18.com. She has a nose for news that matters. She is inquisitive and curious about things. Among other things, financial markets, economy, a…Read More
Aparna Deb is a Subeditor and writes for the business vertical of News18.com. She has a nose for news that matters. She is inquisitive and curious about things. Among other things, financial markets, economy, a… Read More
September 19, 2025, 08:50 IST
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Walmart‘s online marketplace has become a key part of its strategy to grow profit faster than sales and better compete against its longtime rival, Amazon.
As the largest U.S. retailer with more than 4,600 locations nationwide, growing sales online is also critical for its future.
But a CNBC investigation found Walmart’s digital boom came as it made it easier for third-party sellers to join and sell on its marketplace, a strategy that has come with a cost.
Some consumers have received counterfeit, potentially dangerous products after shopping on the marketplace, CNBC found. The investigation also uncovered dozens of third-party sellers who had stolen the credentials of another business to set up an account, including some who were offering fake health and beauty items.
In the early days of Walmart’s online marketplace, former employees and sellers said it had strict policies for vetting third-party sellers and the products they offer. But over time, Walmart loosened those controls in a bid to woo sellers away from Amazon and appear more friendly than its rival, according to sellers, e-commerce consultants, and current and former employees.
When asked for comment on CNBC’s reporting, Walmart said “trust and safety are non-negotiable for us.”
“Counterfeiters are bad actors who target retail marketplaces across the world, and we are aggressive in our efforts to prevent and combat their deceptive behavior,” Walmart said. “We enforce a zero-tolerance policy for prohibited or noncompliant products and continue to invest in new tools and technologies to help ensure only trusted, legitimate items reach our customers.”
CNBC’s investigation uncovered new details about Walmart’s strategy to grow its online marketplace and the risks it took to take market share from Amazon.
Here are five takeaways from the investigation.
Stolen identities and product tests
During CNBC’s investigation into Walmart’s marketplace, it found at least 43 third-party sellers who had used the identity of another business to set up their account. Some of these sellers were impersonating large, publicly traded companies such as Thermo Fisher Scientific and Rockwell Medical, while others were smaller, private businesses, such as a New York grocery chain and a Chicago pizzeria.
CNBC purchased and tested six items for its investigation, all of them highly rated, deeply discounted beauty products offered by sellers that were impersonating legitimate businesses. All of them were fake, according to brands and lab testing.
Walmart trailers sit in storage at a Walmart Distribution Center in Hurricane, Utah on May 30, 2024.
George Frey | AFP | Getty Images
Some of the companies that were being impersonated on Walmart.com told CNBC they had received mysterious packages at their homes or businesses that they later realized were customer returns.
One of them, Lifeworks-ACS, received at least 14 returns and mailed them to CNBC for authentication. All of them were found to be counterfeit.
Employee pressure
During the Covid pandemic, Walmart’s marketplace boomed and the company gradually made it easier for sellers to join and list items on the platform, former employees said.
One of those former employees, Tammie Jones, said when she first joined Walmart’s seller vetting team, the requirements to join the marketplace were strict. But she said over time, there was pressure from management to approve more sellers, even when she had concerns about the applicant’s credentials or documentation.
“It got to a point where they were just like, ‘You know what? Just go ahead and approve everybody,'” said Jones. “They wanted that business, so they were willing to take a chance on it.”
Onboarding and product vetting
The requirements to join Amazon’s and Walmart’s marketplaces are different. Amazon often makes sellers conduct a video interview with a company employee, while Walmart’s marketplace does not list a video interview as a requirement to join.
Over time, Walmart also made changes to the documentation it requires sellers to submit during the application process. In the past, applicants were required to provide their employer identification number and both a W-9 and EIN form, according to a video of Walmart’s application uploaded in February 2022.
As recently as late March, applicants still needed to provide their EIN, but they were no longer required to upload their W-9 and EIN form, according to a video of Walmart’s seller application posted to YouTube on March 31.
At the time, the only document U.S. sellers were required to upload was a copy of their driver’s license or passport, according to the video. Additional IRS documentation was listed as “optional,” the video shows.
There are also differences in the documentation Amazon and Walmart require from sellers about the products they want to list. On Amazon, some sellers are asked to provide invoices showing how they sourced their products, which includes proof they purchased between 10 and sometimes as many as 100 units. The Walmart sellers CNBC spoke to, who were interviewed before Walmart changed some aspects of its vetting process in July, said they were rarely, if ever, asked to provide details on how they sourced their goods. Those who were asked to submit documents said they often only needed to show an invoice for one unit and occasionally, answer a few questions about their supplier.
Providing an invoice that only shows one unit, compared with 10 or 100, makes it easier for people to resell stolen or counterfeit goods, experts said.
Walmart’s changes
About three weeks after CNBC shared its reporting with Walmart, the company changed some of its marketplace vetting policies for beauty and personal-care products in late July.
In an email Walmart sent to some sellers, the company announced new restrictions for the category and said it would start requiring certain sellers to participate in an “enhanced vetting program” for those kinds of items. The changes would address some of the issues raised in CNBC’s reporting.
As part of the new program, some sellers would have to provide documentation for each personal-care or beauty item in their assortment, such as an invoice that demonstrates the product was sourced directly from a brand owner or manufacturer.
Numerous beauty and personal-care listings were taken down from the platform after the change, some sellers said.
Legal landscape
The nature of online marketplaces makes it difficult to get rid of counterfeit goods entirely, partially because of a lack of regulation. While selling counterfeit goods is a crime, platforms face almost no liability for facilitating their sale, as long as they take down listings for fake goods after brands bring them to their attention.
The Shop Safe Act, a bipartisan federal bill, is designed to curb the sale of fakes online by incentivizing platforms to better vet sellers and the products they’re offering. When platforms comply with certain anti-counterfeiting measures, they could be shielded from liability if a seller offers a fake product.
Brands widely supported the legislation, but it has so far failed to pass at least three times, partially because Walmart and other online marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy and eBay have lobbied against aspects of it, two U.S. Senate aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the discussions were private, told CNBC. The legislation is expected to be reintroduced in the current Congress, they said.
In the absence of more concrete policy changes, legal experts said the argument that certain platforms could be held responsible for the sale of harmful products like counterfeit body lotion or faulty fire alarms is gaining momentum, even if they were technically sold by a third party.
A UK watchdog has found gambling firm Spreadex’s takeover of rival spread betting firm Sporting Index created a monopoly in the market by eliminating its “only competitor”.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Spreadex must sell Sporting Index following a fresh review of the deal.
A spokesman for Spreadex said it disagreed with the “entirely disproportionate” decision regarding its acquisition of a “failing firm”.
The CMA found that having a monopoly in the market could lead to a worse experience for users, a more limited range of products, and higher prices for consumers.
The acquisition, which took place in 2023, reduces the number of specialist betting firms from two to one, the regulator said.
Richard Feasey, chairman of the independent panel reviewing the merger, said: “We found that the merger substantially lessens competition by removing Spreadex’s only competitor in the sports spread betting market in the UK.
“We also found that the only effective remedy would be for Spreadex to sell Sporting Index to restore competition in the supply of licensed online sports spread betting in the UK.
“Doing so would mean customers in the UK have greater choice between two independent businesses, rather than one.”
Sports spread betting involves betting on a range of outcomes for a sports event, rather than fixed-odds bets which involve a standard “win or lose” scenario.
The closer a bet is to an outcome, the more money a consumer can win. But it also means it is possible for consumers to lose more than their initial stake.
The CMA launched a fresh investigation into the deal after Spreadex appealed its decision to the Competition Appeal Tribunal in March.
A panel had found last year that the deal harmed competition in the market and that a sale should take place.
Following Friday’s final report, Spreadex can now assure the regulator that it will sell Sporting Index, or the CMA could order the sale to a buyer that it approves of.
A spokesman for Spreadex said it was “extremely disappointed” in the CMA’s decision.
It said: “We have co-operated and engaged positively with the CMA throughout what has now been a 20-month review period into an immaterial transaction involving a failing firm serving a very small number of customers in a tiny sub-section of the UK sports betting market.”
Spreadex said it recognised the “importance of the CMA’s role in protecting and promoting competition in the UK economy” but that it believed the review was “wholly disproportionate to the benefits it is purported to provide either the UK economy or consumers”.
“Sporting Index’s customers have greatly benefited from Spreadex’s infrastructure, resources, improved services, and increased oversight since the acquisition,” it said.
“Spreadex strongly disagrees with this entirely disproportionate decision and are reviewing all available options.”
The Co-operative Group is expected to shed light on the impact of a damaging cyber attack in its first financial update since being targeted by hackers.
Shoppers were faced with empty shelves and issues with payments during the fallout from the cyber incident in April, as a raft of retailers were hit.
On Thursday, the retail and funerals specialist will reveal its results for the first half of 2025, covering the period when it was hit hard by the cyber attack.
The company shut off parts of its IT systems after the attack, in which hackers accessed and extracted members’ personal data.
In July, the company confirmed that all 6.5 million members of the Co-op had their data stolen in the incident.
Chief executive Shirine Khoury-Haq said she was “devastated” by the impact of the incident on workers and members.
She told the BBC that “names, addresses and contact information” for all of its members were accessed.
The boss said the hackers created a copy of one of the firm’s files but were unable to attack its platforms further and install planned ransomware.
However, the company has not yet revealed the full financial impact of the crime, which affected store transactions and product availability.
The cyber attack was one of several against UK retailers, with both Marks & Spencer and Harrods also significantly impacted.
Marks & Spencer, which stopped all online sales for six weeks following its hack, said it faced a £300 million financial hit.
The Co-op’s cyber incident came amid a challenging period for the retailer, which is facing higher costs and pressure on consumer confidence from the rising cost of living.
Last year, the company reported improved profits but warned in April it would face more than £200 million in costs and spending pressures in 2025.
The retail group warned cost hits would include another £80 million from the impact of shoplifting across its retail estate, following a similar bill in 2024, and £50 million from the increase in national insurance contributions.
The group saw revenues grow by 1.5% on a pro-forma 52-week basis to £11.3 billion for last year.
Recent statistics from industry experts at Worldpanel have pointed to weaker sales in recent months.
Figures from earlier this week, indicated that the Co-op saw sales slip by around 2% over the 12 weeks to September 7, compared with the same period a year earlier.
The data also indicated that the retailer has lost market share in the UK grocery sector over the past year as a result.
Nevertheless, the data focuses purely on the group’s grocery business and compares the retailer directly with much larger supermarket stores from rivals including Tesco.
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