Sensex, Nifty struggle despite Asian gains. Here's why Trump tariff verdict fails to lift mood
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The Indian headline indices BSE Sensex and Nifty started Thursday with a gap up but soon slipped lower. This occurred despite strong gains in Asian markets after a U.S. federal court blocked President Donald Trump's proposal to impose heavy tariffs on imports from nearly all countries.After hitting the day's high of 24,889, Nifty plunged over 200 points to hit the day's low of 24,677 while the 30-stock Sensex fell to 81,107 following the highs of 81,816 it made in the initial trade.However, major Asian indices like the Japanese Nikkei surged 711 points or nearly 2% in the intraday trade while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 300 points or 1.3%. China's Shanghai Composite index was higher by 0.70% around 1 pm India time, while South Korea's Kospi also traded 2% higher.Market experts attributed this lackluster trade to two primary reasons while conceding that the domestic markets are under consolidation with a broader trend towards the positive side.Rajesh Palviya, Senior Vice President, Research-Head Technical & Derivatives at Axis Securities, said that the markets have given up their initial gains amid selling pressure because of monthly expiry. He said that markets fell amid call writing and adjustments being made.He said that the broader trend remains positive and markets will likely gain from the next session. 'Index is subdued but action is happening in the mid and smallcap stocks,' he said.The Nifty Midcap 100 was up 0.30% while the Nifty Smallcap 100 was half-a-percentage point higher.Echoing a similar sentiment, Nilesh Jain, Head Vice President, Equity Research Technical and Derivatives at Centrum Broking said Indian markets have been under consolidation for the past 2-3 sessions. He said that monthly expiry is the reason behind today's lackluster trade and the long term trend remains positive.Amid ongoing trade negotiations between India and the U.S., the impact of a Federal court blocking Trump's tariff decisions will have a limited impact on India, two experts said."India was comparatively less impacted than its Asian peers from the outset, as the higher tariff rates were primarily imposed on other countries. Furthermore, news of favorable trade discussions between the U.S. and India helped ease concerns about a significant impact on Indian exports to the U.S. These factors may explain why Indian markets have not shown any major reaction to the recent U.S. court ruling on tariffs," Ajit Mishra, Senior Vice President - Research at Religare Broking said.The Indian markets are in a consolidation phase, said Aamar Deo Singh, Senior Vice President-Equity, Commodity & Currency at Angel One opining that the U.S. federal court's decision will have a limited impact on India.'We still have to set-up manufacturing capabilities to first come to the level where we become large exporters,' he added.The metal sector held its ground firmly on the D-Street, with the Nifty Metal index jumping by 1.5%. Barring APL Apollo Tubes, the other 14 stocks were trading in the green, jumping up to 10%. Lloyds Metals And Energy, Jindal Stainless, Hindustan Zinc, Jindal Steel & Power, Tata Steel, NMDC, Hindustan Copper, Steel Authority of India (SAIL), JSW Steel, Adani Enterprises, National Aluminium Company (NALCO) and Hindalco Industries were up between 3% and 0.12%.Welspun was the top gainer, jumping by 10% in the day's trade. The company had announced its earnings on Wednesday where the company reported 143% surge in its Q4FY25 net profit. SAIL , too, reported its earnings on Wednesday, reporting an 11% growth in its Q4 PAT.A three-judge panel of the US Court of International Trade ruled that Trump overstepped his authority when he invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to declare a national emergency and justify the sweeping tariffs.The tariffs overturned decades of US trade policy, disrupted global commerce, rattled financial markets and raised the risk of higher prices and recession in the United States and around the world.Also Read: Turnaround stocks: IFCI, Shree Renuka Sugars among six BSE 500 stocks to swing to profit in Q4 (Inputs from Agencies)(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)
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Economic Times
18 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Operation Social Media: Digital dogs of war bark loud, bite little in Pakistan's info ops
Live Events When bots go off louder than bombs Indian jets capturing Lahore and Karachi. Arrest of Pakistan's army chief and an alleged military coup. A Pakistani cyberattack disabling India's power grid. India bombing Afghan territory or surrendering in key battlefronts. Pakistan's playbook Videos from Lebanon's 2020 explosion being shared as missile strikes on Indian cities. Drone footage from Jalandhar fires framed as attacks. Game footage falsely portraying Pakistani military success. Recycled images from other conflict zones passed off as Indian casualties. Inside Pakistan's covert spy ring Open-source intelligence: Boon or bane? Newsrooms under fire Cyber Frontline: 1.5 million attacks, but only 150 breaches India's response AI fact-checkers Truth is the first casualty, but not the last word (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel 'Indian forces wave the white flag!'"Karachi captured!""Pakistan Army Chief arrested!"None of it was true. All of it went India and Pakistan teetered on the edge of open warfare this May following a gruesome terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians, a parallel battle unfolded, not on land or in air, but in the boundless terrain of was not merely a war of missiles and drones; it was an orchestrated campaign of perception warfare, fuelled by a deluge of misinformation and psychological operations designed to distort, distract and is how 'Operation Social Media' unfolded -- an invisible front that exposed how deeply disinformation can influence modern conflict, and how India, despite facing a sophisticated hybrid threat, sought to maintain both operational focus and digital crisis began with a terror attack at a popular tourist spot in Kashmir. The assault bore the fingerprints of Pakistan-based terror outfits, prompting New Delhi to launch Operation Sindoor , a series of precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on May immediately, unverified claims began saturating social media. According to reports from The Guardian and The Washington Post, X (formerly Twitter) became a hotbed of false triumphs, premature victory laps, and fictionalised videos, repurposed war clips, and even footage from video games like Arma 3 flooded social media platforms during the India-Pakistan standoff, giving rise to a parallel narrative war. These posts were amplified by a mix of anonymous accounts, official handles, and even journalists acting on unverified internet observatory NetBlocks reported that 65% of these viral false posts originated from IP addresses linked to Pakistan, while another 20% came from untraceable bot to the Washington-based non-profit think tank, the Centre for the Study of Organized Hate, 'X emerged as the primary hub for both misinformation and disinformation.' The think tank analysed 437 such posts and found that 179, or nearly 41%, originated from verified accounts, which are often perceived as credible due to their blue-check status. These included posts by politicians, influencers, media personalities, and retired military officials.'What was particularly alarming,' the report noted, 'was the credibility lent to these falsehoods by high-profile sources.' Despite the scale of this disinformation, only 73 posts, just 17%, were flagged by X's Community Notes, the platform's crowd-sourced fact-checking feature. This, the think tank argued, pointed to a serious lapse in content moderation at a time of high geopolitical Hameed Naik, director of the think tank, described the information war as 'a global trend in hybrid warfare'. 'This wasn't ordinary nationalist chest-thumping,' said Joyojeet Pal of the University of Michigan. 'This had the potential to push two nuclear-armed neighbours to the brink.'The social media campaign didn't begin with Operation Sindoor; it was already underway. On April 25, days before the Indian Air Force strike, India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had announced the banning of 16 YouTube channels and several Instagram accounts for spreading 'provocative and communally sensitive content.'Of these, six were Pakistan-based and ten operated from within India, with a combined viewership of over 680 million.A key inflection point came when Pakistan lifted its year-long ban on X during the peak of the crisis. According to minutes from a Pakistani Senate committee meeting, this move was deliberate and strategic, intended to enable Islamabad to 'participate in the narrative war.'NetBlocks confirmed that access to X in Pakistan was restored precisely as tensions with India escalated, giving Pakistani agencies and allied influencers a wide window to flood the platform with misleading and often provocative the aftermath of the operation, and as misinformation swirled on social media, India's Press Information Bureau (PIB) Fact Check division stepped in to debunk dozens of viral claims. These included:Together, these examples offer a window into the scale, coordination, and intent behind the disinformation campaign, aimed not just at misleading the public but also at distorting the global perception of India's military and political a related espionage probe, Indian intelligence uncovered a Pakistan-backed operation recruiting social media influencers as spies. Naushaba Shahzad Masood, known as 'Madam N', runs Jaiyana Travels and Tourism in Lahore. She was building a network of 500 spies inside India, focusing on Hindu and Sikh YouTubers like Jyoti Malhotra and Jasbir six months, Naushaba arranged travel for about 3,000 Indians and 1,500 expatriates to Pakistan, fast-tracking visas through direct contacts at the Pakistani High Commission in Delhi. She also managed Sikh and Hindu pilgrimage tours with the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), charging inflated fees that funded ISI trails include Naushaba's phone number found on arrested spies' devices and two Pakistani bank accounts linked to transfers from India. Her network recruits through agents operating in major Indian cities, including situation also highlighted the double-edged nature of Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT). Originally conceived to empower citizens through satellite images, open data, and social media monitoring, OSINT's decentralised model became a tool for mass manipulation.'Anyone with an internet connection could now pose as an OSINT expert,' observed an analysis published by ET. The danger lies in viral misinformation being passed off as expert assessments, especially when retweeted by influencers and news outlets under pressure for real-time Indian newsrooms too fell for the deluge of fake to The Washington Post, in one case, a journalist reportedly received a WhatsApp message, allegedly from a public broadcaster, claiming that Pakistan's army chief had been arrested. Within minutes, this falsehood became prime-time 'breaking news.'Speaking to The Post, Former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao described the atmosphere as one of 'hypernationalism' and 'parallel reality,' cautioning that the lack of authoritative government briefings created a vacuum often filled by not everyone was Press Information Bureau, along with a 24/7 monitoring centre set up by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, worked to counter misinformation in real time. Fact-checks were issued, social media handles were flagged, and broadcasters were warned for violating verification social media churned with false claims, the real-time cyber threat was no less intense. According to Maharashtra Cyber, over 1.5 million cyber attacks were launched against Indian infrastructure by seven Pakistan-allied Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) barrage of cyberattacks not only came from the neighbouring country but from Bangladesh and the Middle Eastern hacker collectives such as APT 36 (also known as Transparent Tribe), Pakistan Cyber Force, and Team Insane PK launched a coordinated series of cyberattacks in the days surrounding the arsenal included malware campaigns, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, GPS spoofing attempts, and website defacements aimed at sowing panic and disrupting public trust in India's digital to officials familiar with the matter, India faced over 1.5 million intrusion attempts during this period. However, only 150 attacks were successful, a tiny claims that the hackers had penetrated Mumbai's airport systems or Election Commission portals were found to be baseless. Addressing reporters, a senior official of Maharashtra Cyber debunked claims of hackers stealing data from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, hacking aviation and municipal systems, and targeting the Election Commission website."The probe discovered that cyber attacks on (government websites in) India decreased after India-Pakistan ceased hostilities, but not fully stopped. These attacks continue from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Morocco, and Middle Eastern countries," he Indian government's 'Road of Sindoor' report, a classified cyber threat assessment, showed these attacks were part of a coordinated hybrid warfare strategy involving both digital and psychological the information war raged online, Indian armed forces maintained disciplined silence and strategic clarity. Official statements were sparse, but targeted. Operation Sindoor focused solely on dismantling terrorist infrastructure, confirmed in a press conference by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, who clarified that India did not target civilian the scenes, India's cyber defence grid was activated, fact-checking units expanded, and social media protocols for military updates tightened. The government also advised citizens to avoid unverified content and rely only on official the misinformation torrent intensified, social media users increasingly turned to AI chatbots for verification, only to find more confusion and falsehoods. Platforms like xAI's Grok, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Google's Gemini became common go-to tools for instant fact-checking amid the crisis.'Hey @Grok, is this true?' became a viral plea on Elon Musk's platform X, reflecting the surge in users seeking quick debunks. However, these AI assistants often propagated misinformation under renewed criticism for inserting far-right conspiracy theories into unrelated answers, misidentified old video footage from Sudan's Khartoum airport as missile strikes on Pakistan's Nur Khan airbase during the conflict. Similarly, unrelated fire footage from Nepal was wrongly claimed as Pakistani military Sadeghi of the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard warned, 'The growing reliance on Grok as a fact-checker comes as X and other major tech companies have scaled back investments in human fact-checkers. Our research has repeatedly found that AI chatbots are not reliable sources for news and information, particularly when it comes to breaking news.'The Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University found that AI chatbots were 'generally bad at declining to answer questions they couldn't answer accurately, offering incorrect or speculative answers instead.' For instance, AFP fact-checkers in Uruguay asked Google's Gemini about an AI-generated image of a woman; it confirmed the image's authenticity but fabricated details about her identity and digital front of the India-Pakistan standoff reveals the complex landscape of modern warfare, where victory is measured not just in ground gained but in narrative despite the storm of falsehoods, India's response, though understated, was layered, methodical, and largely effective. As the lines between social media warfare and statecraft blur, it's clear that the next great conflict won't just be fought with missiles, but with memes, metadata, and misinformation.
Time of India
24 minutes ago
- Time of India
'Supremacist and racist mentality': Iran slams US travel ban; cites 'deep hostility towards Muslims'
Iran on Saturday condemned the US travel ban targeting Iranians and citizens of 11 other mostly Middle Eastern and African countries, calling it a reflection of a "supremacist and racist mentality. " These remarks came following US President Donald Trump 's executive order reinstating broad travel restrictions, citing national security concerns after a recent firebomb attack at a pro-Israel rally in Colorado. It is "a clear sign of the dominance of a supremacist and racist mentality among American policymakers," director general for the Department of Iranian Affairs Abroad at Iran's foreign ministry, Alireza Hashemi Raja said in a statement released by the ministry. He further stated that "US government's decision to ban Iranian nationals, solely based on their religion and nationality, not only reflects deep-seated hostility toward the Iranian people and Muslims but also constitutes a violation of fundamental principles of international law, including the prohibition of discrimination and basic human rights." The US travel restrictions, starting June 9, will apply to citizens of Iran, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trading CFD dengan Teknologi dan Kecepatan Lebih Baik IC Markets Mendaftar Undo Seven additional countries face partial restrictions. Hashemi-Raja further indicated that, "depriving hundreds of millions of people of the right to travel to another country solely based on their nationality or religion is an example of racial discrimination and systemic racism within the American ruling establishment." The ministry official noted the ban's discriminatory nature would "entail international responsibility for the US government", without providing details. The minister also declared that Iran would take all necessary steps to protect the rights of its citizens against the impact of the US government's discriminatory decision. Diplomatic relations between Iran and the US ended shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, with tensions persisting since. The United States hosts the largest Iranian diaspora globally. Tehran's foreign ministry data shows approximately 1.5 million Iranians resided in the United States in 2020. Trump's directive followed Sunday's incident at the Colorado rally, where officials reported over a dozen injuries. The accused is an Egyptian national who remained after his tourist visa expired.
Time of India
27 minutes ago
- Time of India
Congress leader Rajesh Soni arrested for Facebook posts on Operation Sindoor, booked under new BNS law
What the police say sparked the arrest Live Events What the charges actually mean (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Rajesh Soni, a senior Congress leader in Gujarat, was arrested early Friday by the state's Cyber Crime Cell over a pair of Facebook posts that police allege endangered national morale and spread misinformation about a major military posts were related to Operation Sindoor, an ongoing mission by the Indian armed forces targeting terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK). Soni now faces charges under two sections of the recently enacted Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS)—sections 152 and 353(1)(a).The FIR, filed by the CID Cyber Crime team on Thursday, cited two Facebook posts made by of them depicted Prime Minister Narendra Modi wearing a fighter pilot uniform in a poster-like image. In another, Soni allegedly claimed that 'the Indian government surrendered during the operation,' an accusation the police say could undermine both the mission and the morale of troops deployed on the of Police (CID-Cyber Crime), Bharatsinh Tank, said, 'Soni was accused of breaking defence personnel's morale and putting India's sovereignty in danger through misleading posts on Facebook.'Tank went on to say, 'We arrested Soni for his posts which could break the armed forces' morale and send a wrong message to soldiers that their contribution and sacrifice on the battlefield will go in vain.'Soni has been charged under Section 152 of the BNS, which deals with acts that endanger the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India. This section carries serious consequences, including up to life imprisonment or a minimum of seven years' jail, plus a second charge—Section 353(1)(a)—relates to statements that could incite public mischief. This legal provision, too, has teeth and signals the government's intent to regulate what it views as provocative or destabilising online behaviour, especially during military arrest did not go unnoticed by Soni's party after news broke, several Congress leaders gathered at the CID's office in Gandhinagar in protest. Leading the charge was Gujarat Congress president Shaktisinh Gohil, who described the police action as disproportionate and politically said, 'He only tried to highlight that soldiers need to get their due credit instead of the govt spending taxpayers' money on publicity.'He also accused the authorities of cracking down on free expression at a time when the nation should be focusing on supporting its armed forces, not silencing Sindoor has become a national talking point in recent weeks. The Indian military launched the mission with the stated goal of eliminating terror infrastructure in Pakistani territory and PoK. It has been projected by the government as a demonstration of India's zero-tolerance policy towards cross-border the operation has also sparked debates over public narrative management. As the conflict plays out on the ground, its portrayal in digital spaces has become sensitive—especially with a politically charged environment and general elections in government's actions suggest it sees misinformation as a direct threat to the morale of soldiers and the success of such operations. At the same time, critics argue that there is a thin line between national interest and political convenience when it comes to controlling arrest under the new BNS framework could mark a pivotal moment in how India enforces online accountability. It raises difficult questions: Where does one draw the line between political critique and disinformation? Who decides whether a post is morale-breaking or simply provocative?For now, Rajesh Soni remains in custody, his party defiant, and the legal system gearing up for what may become a high-profile case on digital speech and national security.(With inputs from TOI)
