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Informist, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026                                      Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

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Equity Alert: Indices seen in range; sentiment weak on US-Iran tensions

 

MUMBAI--0830 IST--Benchmark indices are expected to be in range after a sharp fall Thursday amid weak investor sentiment. Fears of an escalation in the US-Iran tensions and an overnight decline in the US market and a fall in equity indices across Asia in early trade may fuel further bearish bets. Investors may react strongly to shares of oil and gas companies after the April futures contract of Brent crude oil touched its highest level in nearly seven months at $72.16 per barrel earlier in the day, as oil operations in the Strait of Hormuz faced the risk of disruption.

 

US President Donald Trump Thursday said he would take a call on deciding on military action against Iran in the next 10 days, BBC reported. Recently, the US has increased its military presence in West Asia, according to media reports. "It's proven to be, over the years, not easy to make a meaningful deal with Iran," Trump said at the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace in Washington DC. "Otherwise bad things happen." At 0729 IST, the April futures contract of Brent crude oil was slightly higher at $71.86 per barrel. The contract has risen 6.5% in the last three days due to escalating tensions in West Asia.

 

Shares of information technology companies are expected to be under pressure, tracking a decline in their peers in the US. The American Depository Receipts of IT majors Infosys and Wipro fell 3.3% and 2.6%, respectively. Fears of disruptions from AI have led to a decline in IT stocks globally and analysts are split about the long-term view for domestic IT players.

 

Overnight, indices in the US closed lower with the S&P 500 declining 0.3%, weighed down by a fall in financial services and software stocks. Investors moved out of private credit stocks after alternative assets manager Blue Owl Capital said it's going to tighten investor liquidity, spurring worries about losses in the private loans area, CNBC reported. 

 

In early trade Friday, most equity indices in Asia fell. Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 1.3%, weighed by utilities stocks, CNBC reported. The broader Topix index was 1.4% lower. South Korea's KOSPI rose 1.5%, hitting yet another record high on the back of gains in stocks of defence companies and chipmakers. Equity markets in mainland China were closed on account of the Lunar New Year holiday, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index, which opened after a three-day holiday, dropped almost 1% in early trade.

 

At 0830 IST, the GIFT Nifty 50 indicates a further fall of the Nifty 50. The February contract of the GIFT Nifty was 14 points lower than the Nifty 50's previous close. On Thursday, the Nifty 50 index closed 1.4% lower at 25454.35 points. The BSE Sensex closed at 82498.14 points, down 1.5%. The 50-stock index is likely to face resistance at 25500 points and may find support at 25200 points, Rupak De, technical analyst at LKP Securities, said.(Eshitva Prakash)

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Equity Alert: US mkts end lower; S&P 500, Dow Jones snap 3-day winning streak

 

MUMBAI--0753 IST--Equity indices in the US ended lower Thursday, with the S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average index snapping gains after three sessions. Investors' focus shifted from stocks of financial companies amid the tensions between the US and Iran. 

 

Investors shifted out of private credit stocks after private market and alternative assets manager Blue Owl Capital said it is going to tighten investor liquidity following a sale of loan assets worth $1.4 billion, CNBC reported. This prompted concerns from investors about losses in the private loans area. Shares of the company ended nearly 6% lower, with stocks of Blackstone and Apollo Global Management also falling over 5?ch. 

 

Stocks of software companies also came under pressure over fears of artificial intelligence disrupting their operations. Chief Executive Officer of Mistral AI Arthur Mensch said more than 50% of enterprises' software could be replaced by AI, CNBC reported. Shares of Salesforce, Intuit, and Cadence Design Systems fell 1-3%.

 

Tensions between Iran and US over the former's nuclear programme is keeping markets on the edge. US President Donald Trump Thursday said he was going to determine whether to launch military strikes on Iran in the next 10 days, CNBC reported. "So now we may have to take it a step further, or we may not," he said at the inaugural Board of Peace meeting, adding, "Maybe we're going to make a deal. You're going to be finding out over the next probably 10 days."

 

Walmart fell over 1% during the session despite beating estimates for its December quarter earnings. This comes as the company's new Chief Executive Officer John Furner gave a conservative outlook for the coming year, expecting net sales to rise 3.5-4.5% against expectations of an outlook of 5% by LSEG, Reuters reported. The company also announced a $30 billion share buyback plan. 

 

Data showed the initial jobless claims fell 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 206,000 for the week ended Saturday, Reuters reported. This was below the forecast of 225,000 claims by economists polled by Reuters. This marked a significant decline since the claims surged to 232,000 at the end of January.

 

Following are the closing levels of US indices Thursday:  

 

Index	Level	Change in %
S&P 500	6861.89	(-)0.28
NASDAQ Composite	22682.73	(-)0.31
Dow Jones Industrial Average	49395.16	(-)0.54

 

(Akshat Saksena)

 

US$1 = INR 90.67

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.

 

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