PRE-MARKET INDIAN STOCKS NEWS: Bajaj Finance (BAF IS) Q2 profit rose 28.7% Y/Y; Hindustan Zinc (HZ IS) profit more than doubled and it cut its FY27 production cost forecast

Bajaj Finance (BAF IS) - Co. Q2 (INR) consolidated net profit rose 28.7% Y/Y to 63.67bln (prev. 49.48bln), supported by strong loan growth, with AUM up 26% Y/Y. (Newswires)

Hindustan Zinc (HZ IS) - Co. Q2 profit more than doubled Y/Y on higher metal prices; Co. cut its FY27 zinc production cost forecast to USD 825-850/t from USD 975-1,000/t. (Newswires)

L&T Technology Services (LTTS IS) - Co. reported a jump in Q2 revenue and expects a robust H2 FY27 on improving order backlogs and several large deals. (Newswires)

NMDC (NMDC IS) - Co. has put its planned foray into nickel on hold, partly due to global oversupply concerns in Indonesia, according to company officials. (Newswires)

Indian tax officials are investigating whether Pernod Ricard and Diageo wrongly classified some bulk Scotch imports to pay lower tariffs under the India-UK trade pact, according to industry sources. (Newswires)

India has shelved a proposal to mandate coal imports to rebuild stockpiles at power plants, Bloomberg reported. (Newswires)

US President Trump's waiver of Russia sanctions under the Graham Act eases energy concerns for India and may improve the chances of a US-India trade deal. (Newswires)

Pre-market Indian result bundles of this kind tend to trade stock-specific rather than as a read on the broader tape, and the two anchor prints here sit in different transmission channels. Bajaj Finance is a rate and consumption proxy: profit growth on strong loan and AUM expansion is the established pattern for large shadow lenders in easing cycles, where the live questions are credit costs and whether asset growth is being bought with margin. Hindustan Zinc's beat is a metal-price pass-through, and the cut in its production cost guidance matters more for the zinc complex than the profit figure, since cost guidance from a low-cost producer resets where the incentive price sits and conditions LME zinc and silver byproduct assumptions; it also has read-across for Vedanta given the group structure. The NMDC nickel deferral is a small but telling signal on Indonesian oversupply weighing on project economics across the complex. The tariff-classification probe into the Scotch importers is a recurring friction under the India-UK pact and has historically produced extended headline risk rather than quick resolution. The shelved coal import mandate and the sanctions waiver headline both feed the energy and trade-deal narrative, where form has been for officials to confirm or walk back within days.