More Stories

Informist, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026                                      Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

---

Equity Alert: Indices in Asia rise tracking gains on Wall Street

 

MUMBAI--0826 IST--Markets in Asia rose in early trade Monday, tracking gains on Wall Street after data showed that the unemployment rate in the US fell last month. Investors are keeping an eye on oil prices as Iran enters into its third week of protests.

 

Protests in Iran have seen the death of over 500 people, CNBC reported citing a US-based rights group. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is weighing options for an intervention in the country, the report added. Investors will continue to monitor oil prices and await developments pertaining to Iran.

 

Shares of South Korean logistics company Hyundai Glovis Co. were up nearly 8%. The stock rose after analysts raised their target price on the company, CNBC said. US-based Boston Dynamics, in which Hyundai Glovis has an 80% stake, last Monday said it was partnering with Google DeepMind to integrate artificial intelligence into humanoid robots. The KOSPI was trading over 1% higher during the session.

 

Japanese markets were closed for a holiday, CNBC said. Hirofumi Yoshimura, the coalition partner of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, said the prime minister may call an early general election. The comments came after local media citing government sources said Takaichi was contemplating a snap election in February, CNBC said. 

 

Taiwan's exports in December rose 43.4% to $62.48 billion, slightly below expectations, Reuters reported. December marks the 26th consecutive month of rise in the country's exports, according to the finance ministry of the country. The country's exports rose on the back of high demand for its chips and AI-related technology, Reuters said. The growth came in despite a 20% tariff on exports to the US. However, the exports of semiconductors are currently excluded from the tariffs. In January, the finance ministry expects exports to rise between 50% and 56% from the previous year. 

 

Following are the levels of key Asian indices at 0821 IST:

 

INDEX	LEVEL	CHANGE IN %
CSI 300 Index	4752.51	(-)0.13
Hang Seng Index	26278.01	0.18
KOSPI	4639.68	1.16
Nikkei 225 Day	51939.89	1.61
TOPIX FIRST SECTION	3514.11	0.85
FTSE Singapore Straits Times	4770.83	0.55
S&P/ASX 200 Index	8750.2	0.37

 

(Akshat Saksena)

 

 

---

Equity Alert: S&P 500 hits fresh high; futures dn after Powell investigation

MUMBAI---0748 IST--Indices in the US ended higher Friday, with the S&P 500 reaching a fresh new high of 6978.36 points. This high came after the release of the December jobs report. Futures on Wall Street fell late Sunday after reports said the Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

 

Data showed that US non-farm payrolls increased by 50,000, below the 73,000 increase estimated by economists polled by Dow Jones, according to a report from CNBC. Even though the data was weaker than expected, it showed that the country's economy is still persevering with the unemployment rate inching down to 4.4% against an estimation of 4.5% by economists. Investors saw this as a sign that the economy may improve soon, according to CNBC. The December data was the first since October that was not affected by the record government shutdown, with the October data not released and the one for November being delayed, CNBC said. 

 

Mortgage lenders rose after US President Donald Trump said he ordered his representatives to acquire mortgage bonds worth $200 billion to bring down housing costs, according to a Reuters report. Shares of Loandepot jumped over 19% while those of Opendoor Technologies and Rocket Companies rose over 13% and nearly 10%, respectively. Among other stocks, shares of General Motors fell over 2?ter the company said it would take a charge of $6 billion to undo some of the investments it made in the electric-vehicle segment, Reuters said. 

 

The US Supreme Court on Friday said it would not issue a ruling on the legality of Trump's tariffs, leaving investors waiting for clarity on the issue. Investors expect higher-than-usual volatility if the courts decide to strike down Trump's tariffs, a Reuters report said. 

 

Meanwhile, futures on the Wall Street fell after US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said he was under criminal investigation, according to a report from CNBC-TV18. In an post on the Federal Reserve's official handle on X, Powell claimed that the investigation was a result of the central bank making their decisions on interest rates based on their "best assessment of what will serve the public," rather than following Trump's preferences, CNBC-TV18 said. "On Friday, the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas threatening a criminal indictment related to my testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June," Powell was quoted as saying by CNBC-TV18. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 200 points and those of S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell 30 and 150 points respectively, the report said. 

 

 

Following are the closing levels of US indices Friday:  

 

Index	Level	Change in %
S&P 500	6966.28	0.65
NASDAQ Composite	23671.35	0.81
Dow Jones Industrial Average	49504.07	0.48

 

(Akshat Saksena)

 

US$1 = INR 90.16

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

All prices from National Stock Exchange, unless otherwise specified.

All percentage changes for share prices are rounded off to the nearest whole number; percentage changes for index values are rounded off to one decimal place.

All times are Indian Standard Time.

 

NSE: National Stock Exchange
NYSE: New York Stock Exchange
NYMEX: New York Mercantile Exchange
SEBI: Securities and Exchange Board of India
RBI: Reserve Bank of India

Internet links:
Securities and Exchange Board of India - http://www.sebi.gov.in
Bombay Stock Exchange - http://www.bseindia.com
National Stock Exchange of India - http://www.nseindia.com
Directory of Indian government websites - http://goidirectory.nic.in
Indian Ministry of Finance - http://www.finmin.nic.in
Reserve Bank of India - http://rbi.org.in
Controller General of Accounts, Government of India - http://www.cga.nic.in
Government's Press Information Bureau - http://www.pib.nic.in

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.