India shares fall as US-China trade deal uncertainty, Middle East tensions weigh
-India's benchmark indexes edged lower on Thursday, led by losses in IT stocks, as ambiguity over the U.S.-China trade deal and rising tensions in the Middle East dampened risk appetite.
The Nifty 50 was down 0.16% at 25,101.3 and the BSE Sensex fell 0.2% to 82,355.26, as of 10:13 a.m. IST.
The broader small-caps and mid-caps both fell about 0.3%. Eleven of the 13 major sectors logged losses.
Other Asian markets were also muted, while Wall Street equities fell overnight on fresh geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and a lack of detail in a U.S.-China trade deal. [MKTS/GLOB]
U.S. President Donald Trump said a framework on tariff rates had been reached to revive the fragile trade truce with China. While this lifted investor hopes, the lack of specifics kept markets on edge.
"The tariff crisis is not over yet. With Trump's credibility being what it is, it would be too early to discount the development as a positive for markets," said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments.
Meanwhile, geopolitical concerns heightened after Iran said it will strike U.S. bases in the Middle East if nuclear talks fail and conflict arises with Washington.
Escalating security risks in the Middle East is a negative for India as it could trigger a rise in Brent crude prices, said two analysts.
Heavyweight IT fell 1%. Indian IT companies earn a significant share of their revenue from the United States.
Among individual stocks, Paytm fell 8.4% after India's finance ministry refuted reports claiming the introduction of merchant discount rate on UPI transactions.
Delay or non-introduction of MDR is sentiment negative for Paytm and could present a downside risk to the company's core profitability in fiscal 2026 and 2027, UBS said in a note.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
32 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Oil soars more than 9% after Israel strikes Iran, rattling investors
Oil prices surged more than 9% on Friday (June 13, 2025), hitting their highest in almost five months after Israel struck Iran, dramatically escalating tensions in the Middle East and raising worries about disrupted oil supplies. Brent crude futures jumped $6.29, or 9.07%, to $75.65 a barrel by 0315 GMT after hitting an intraday high of $78.50, the highest since January 27. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up $6.43, or 9.45%, at $74.47 a barrel after hitting a high of $77.62, the loftiest since January 21. Israel strikes Iran LIVE: Military official says nuclear targets hit; explosions heard across Tehran Friday's gains were the largest intraday moves for both contracts since 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine, causing energy prices to spike. Israel said it targeted Iran's nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders on Friday at the start of what it warned would be a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran from building an atomic weapon. "This has elevated geopolitical uncertainty significantly and requires the oil market to price in a larger risk premium for any potential supply disruptions," ING analysts led by Warren Patterson said in a note. Several oil traders in Singapore said it was still too early to say if the strike will affect Middle East oil shipments as it will depend on how Iran retaliates and if the U.S. will intervene. "It's too early to tell but I think the market is worried about shutting off of the Strait of Hormuz," one of the traders said. MST Marquee senior energy analyst Saul Kavonic said the conflict would need to escalate to the point of Iranian retaliation on oil infrastructure in the region before oil supply is materially impacted. He added that Iran could hinder up to 20 million barrels per day of oil supply via attacks on infrastructure or limiting passage through the Strait of Hormuz, in an extreme scenario. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel will receive "harsh punishment" following Friday's attack that he said killed several military commanders. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday called Israel's strikes against Iran a "unilateral action" and said Washington was not involved while also urging Tehran not to target U.S. interests or personnel in the region. "Iran has announced an emergency and is preparing to retaliate, which raises the risk of not just disruptions but of contagion in other neighbouring oil producing nations too," said Priyanka Sachdeva, senior market analyst at Phillip Nova. "Although Trump has shown reluctance to participate, U.S. involvement could further raise concerns." In other markets, stocks dived in early Asian trade, led by a selloff in U.S. futures, while investors scurried to safe havens such as gold and the Swiss franc.
The Hindu
33 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Oracle shares hit record high as AI cloud demand propels revenue forecast
Oracle shares surged 14% to breach the $200-mark for the first time on Thursday, after the company raised its annual revenue forecast, driven by strong demand for its AI-related cloud services. Confidence in the software sector remained strong despite geopolitical tensions, even as analysts warn that U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs could undermine Big Tech's AI investments. Earlier this year, Oracle, whose cloud offerings help companies build their AI infrastructure, announced a joint venture called Stargate to deliver large-scale computing capabilities to OpenAI. "Oracle's once-stodgy image levels up to 'cloud-native mage,' and the competitive map now looks less like a classic three-player real time strategy and more like a battle-royale with everyone dropping in, looking for compute loot", said Michael Ashley Schulman, partner at Running Point Capital Advisors. Oracle expects total revenue to be at least $67 billion for fiscal 2026, CEO Safra Catz said on a post-earnings call. The Texas-based company's cloud services quarterly revenue rose 14% to $11.70 billion. Its overall revenue of $15.90 billion beat estimates of $15.59 billion. At least nine brokerages have raised their price target post-earnings. Oracle trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 25.86, compared to rivals Microsoft at 31.34 and Amazon at 31.80, according to data compiled by LSEG. Microsoft's stock has gained 12.16%, while Amazon's has decreased by 2.8% so far this year. "ORCL has entered an entirely new wave of enterprise popularity that it has not seen since the Internet era in the late 90s," analysts at Piper Sandler added. Shares of the company were last trading at $201.38.
Time of India
33 minutes ago
- Time of India
'US on a path, I believe ... unparalleled': Trump praises own admin on investments, grocery prices - The Economic Times Video
US President Donald Trump, speaking at the White House Congressional Picnic, praised his own administration on the state of economy in the country. He said trillions of dollars of investment are pouring in, incomes are soaring, grocery prices are way down, gasoline prices are way down as well as inflation. This comes as the World Bank rings a warning bell on slowest economic growth worldwide since the 1960s barring the 2008 recession, the worst economic crisis in the history of humankind. The US economy experienced a slight contraction in real GDP during the first quarter of 2025, decreasing at an annual rate of 0.2%
