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Informist, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026                                      Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

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Equity Alert: CLSA upgrades JSW Steel to 'hold', raises target price by 29%

 

MUMBAI--0846 IST--Global brokerage firm CLSA has upgraded its recommendation on the JSW Steel stock to 'hold' from 'underperform' and hiked the target price by 29% to INR 1,200 per share. The brokerage also hiked the target price on Tata Steel's stock by 7% to INR 220 but maintained a 'hold' call, NDTV Profit said in a social media post, citing CLSA.

 

CLSA said Indian hot-rolled-coil prices were up 18% since the low hit in December, while rebar prices have risen as well. Jindal Steel is likely to benefit from this as the company has higher long steel exposure. Jindal Steel's target price was raised nearly 17% to INR 1,375 and the brokerage maintained an 'outperform' call, as per the report.

 

Voicing the same, Macquarie said it expects further upside in India's steel pricing. Domestic steel demand remains strong with 7-8% on-year growth as of year-to-date, NDTV Profit said in a social media post, quoting Macquarie. JSW Steel remains the top pick for Macquirie as the company is expected to benefit from capacity addition, margin expansion, and volume growth, NDTV Profit reported. 

 

On Tuesday, shares of JSW Steel ended over 1% higher at INR 1,254.50 on the National Stock Exchange. The stock was among the top gainers in the Nifty 50 index Tuesday.  (Adhithya Aji)   

 

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Equity Alert: Indices to open up on positive global cues; tariff woes persist

 

MUMBAI--0840 IST--Benchmark indices are expected to rise Wednesday, tracking gains in equity markets globally. Overnight, the US import tariffs came into effect at 10%, even as US President Donald Trump has threatened to raise them by 15%. The future of US import levies is uncertain, but several analysts believe that Trump will raise them further in response to the Supreme Court's decision of shelving the earlier reciprocal tariffs imposed on on goods from countries worldwide. "Almost all countries want to keep the (trade) deal that they've signed with the US," Trump said in the State of the Union address. "A new deal will be far worse for them (countries that have signed a trade pact) and therefore, they will continue to walk along the same successful path that we had negotiated before the Supreme Court's unfortunate involvement."   

 

"Temporary Section 122 Duties would see an additional 10? valorem duty on imported articles of every country for a period of 150 days, unless specifically exempt," the US Customs and Border Protection said in a memo published Monday. Trump used Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to impose 10% blanket tariffs, which he plans to raise to 15%. The US president warned countries that have already signed a deal with the US against "playing games" with tariffs after the US Supreme Court's decision and threatened a higher levy on such nations.

 

In the latest tariff-related development, the Trump administration determined that India, Indonesia and Laos have unfairly subsidised solar manufacturing, according to various media reports. The US Commerce Department has set preliminary duties of 126% on solar imports from India. The rates are based on a determination of foreign subsidies that the US says allowed exporters from the countries to undercut products from its solar producers. Shares of solar manufacturing players such as Waaree Energies, Adani Power, and Tata Power Co. will be in focus.

 

Overnight, indices in the US ended higher as concerns around artificial intelligence-related disruptions eased. Technology and software stocks rose, with shares of Salesforce, which is in partnership with AI player Anthropic, and ServiceNow ending higher by over 4% and 1%, respectively. Indices in Asia tracked overnight gains on Wall Street and were higher in early trade. South Korea's KOSPI was up nearly 2% and hit yet another record high. Japan's Nikkei 225 index and the broader Topix were up 1.5% and 0.4%, respectively. 

 

At 0830 IST, the GIFT Nifty 50 indicated a positive start for the Nifty 50, with the March contract of the GIFT Nifty being over 250 points higher than the Nifty 50's previous close. On Tuesday, the Nifty 50 index closed 1.1% lower at 25424.65 points. The BSE Sensex closed at 82225.92 points, down 1.3%. "The overall chart structure (for the Nifty 50) is side-ways with negative bias," Vipin Kummar, derivative and technical analyst at Globe Capital Markets, said. Intraday support is placed around 25250-25300 spot levels and resistance at 25550-25620, the analyst added.  (Eshitva Prakash)

 

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Equity Alert: Asian indices higher; KOSPI, Nikkei, TAIEX touch fresh highs

 

MUMBAI--0816 IST--Asian indices were mostly higher Wednesday, with several regional indices touching record highs during the session. The Japanese Nikkei 225, Taiwanese TAIEX, South Korean KOSPI, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index touched fresh highs, taking cues from the US indices that closed higher Tuesday as optimism over artificial intelligence offset concerns over the potential disruption to other sectors because of technology. 

 

The South Korean KOSPI index surpassed 6000 points for the first time. This was four months after the index broke through the 4000-point barrier on Oct. 27 and a month after passing the 5000-point barrier on Jan. 27. Shares of Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix were up nearly 2% and 3%, respectively. The country's markets were analysed to be influenced by the rise of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which ended over 1% higher, and the rise in benchmark equity indices in the US, The Chosun Daily reported. Individual investors were net buyers for the session, buying shares worth 569.8 billion Korean won while foreign investors and institutional investors were net sellers, selling shares worth 392.9 billion Korean won and 184.7 billion Korean won, respectively.

 

"The global economy appears to be on slightly firmer footing as the effects of fiscal and monetary policy continue to support activity. Financial markets, however, have struggled to establish a clear direction amid several headwinds," Analysts from Fitch Solutions company BMI were quoted as saying by CNBC in reference to the AI-driven fluctuations and geopolitical risks. The analysts assigned a 50% possibility of a US-led military strike on Iran and said it was contributing to an elevated risk premium in oil prices and to the strength of the US dollar to some extent.

 

Following are the levels of key Asian indices at 0815 IST:

 

INDEX	LEVEL	CHANGE IN %
KOSPI	6086.23	1.95
FTSE Singapore Straits Times	5015.06	(-)0.11
S&P/ASX 200 Index	9129.70	1.19
Hang Seng Index	26708.35	0.44
IDX Composite	8325.03	0.53
TAIEX	35336.91	1.83
CSI 300	4736.67	0.62

 

(Akshat Saksena)

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Equity Alert: US indices end higher Tue; tech shrs lead gains on AI optimism

 

MUMBAI--0740 IST--Indices in the US ended higher Tuesday with technology stocks leading the gains as the revival of enthusiasm for artificial intelligence offset concerns over the technology possibly disrupting operations of companies across various sectors. 

 

"We're in for a period of time where the market will be going through some uncertainty and today we're seeing a little bit of a buy on the dip," Matthew Keator, managing partner in the Keator Group was quoted by Reuters. "We're going to see day-to-day movements but overall, there's so much unknown in terms of how AI ends up being additive or disruptive to some of these companies," he added. 

 

AI lab Anthropic announced new plug-ins across areas such as investment banking and human resources, weeks after its earlier plug-ins fuelled a sell-off in stocks of traditional software companies. The company said its new plug-ins were developed in partnership with companies such as Thomson Reuters, Salesforce and FactSet. Shares of Salesforce, Thomson Reuters, and Factset Research Systems rose 4-11% for the session. 

 

Shares of Docusign were up nearly 3%. This was after Anthropic said its Calude Cowork will now be connected to Docusign as well as existing tools of other organisations such as Google Drive and Gmail, CNBC reported. This offered some optimism for investors who now believe that AI might be able to complement software companies instead of replacing them. 

 

Monetary policymakers in the country also weighed the possible effects of AI on the labour market. US Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said AI could lead to a possible rise in unemployment rate, which was contrasted by US Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller, who does not expect the technology to disrupt the labour market, Reuters reported. 

 

Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court's decision, which struck down many of President Donald Trump's tariffs, and the subsequent threats to implement fresh round of levies on imports continued as a source of uncertainty. "There are still questions about the deals that were in place already," Robert Pavlik was quoted as saying by Reuters. "What happens to those? Are they still happening?" he asked.

 

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices and Meta Platforms were up after the two companies signed a multi-year agreement for Advanced Micro Devices to deploy up to 6 gigawatts of graphics processing units for AI data centres, which includes use of AI-optimised central processing units, or CPUs, CNBC reported.       

 

Following are the closing levels of US indices Tuesday:  

 

Index	Level	Change in %
S&P 500	6890.07	0.77
NASDAQ Composite	22863.68	1.04
Dow Jones Industrial Average	49174.50	0.76

 

(Akshat Saksena)

 

US$1 = INR 90.93

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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