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Informist, Tuesday, May 19, 2026                                      Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

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Equity Alert: To move in range; bias positive as US postpones attack on Iran

 

MUMBAI--0825 IST--Benchmark equity indices are likely to move in a range Tuesday after they settled with marginal gains in the previous session. The positive bias is likely to remain after US President Donald Trump postponed a planned attack on Iran. Crude oil prices fell below $110 a barrel again after they breached the level on Monday. Foreign investment flow, rupee levels, oil prices and the March quarter results will be keenly watched.

 

Trump said he had postponed a planned attack on Iran at the request of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, and added that "serious negotiations are now taking place," Al Jazeera reported. Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said "dialogue does not mean surrender", and that Tehran had entered the "dialogue with dignity, authority, and the preservation of the nation's rights," the report said.

 

"I put it off for a little while, hopefully maybe forever, but possibly for a little while" because "we've had very big discussions with Iran, and we'll see what they amount to," CNBC reported, quoting Trump. Trump was planning to resume military operations as Tehran's latest response was seen as insufficient in ongoing negotiations over a deal to end the war, CNBC reported, based on an Axios report.

 

At 0823 IST, the Brent crude oil July futures contract were down almost 2% at $109.92 a barrel. The futures contract of crude oil fell after rising for the previous three sessions. In the last seven days, the crude oil July futures contract gained 8.5%.

 

"For today's session, the 23,500 level will continue to act as an immediate support zone," Sundar Kewat, technical and derivatives analyst at Ashika Group, said. "On the upside, 23,800 remains a key resistance level, where the index may face difficulty in sustaining higher levels, as this zone has previously acted as a strong hurdle for the market." On Monday, the Nifty 50 settled at 23649.95, up 6.45 points. The BSE Sensex ended at 75315.04, up 77.05 points or 0.1%. At 0811 IST, the May futures contract of Gift Nifty was 0.3% down at 23649.50 from its previous close. This was marginally lower than the Nifty 50's previous close of 23649.95.

 

Indian Oil Corp. hiked the retail petrol price to INR 98.64 per litre Tuesday from INR 97.77 per litre in Delhi. The retail diesel price was also raised to INR 91.58 per litre from INR 90.67 per litre in the region. Indian Oil Corp. reported a nearly 57% on-year rise in its net profit to INR 113.78 billion for the March quarter. This was way above analysts' expectations of INR 72.48 billion. Its top line for the quarter grew 7% on year to INR 2.33 trillion, which was below the Street's view of INR 2.44 trillion. The company's domestic sales for Jan-Mar were INR 26.07 million tonnes, higher than the 24.60 million tonnes recorded in the year-ago quarter.

 

On the earnings front, Bharat Electronics will detail its March quarter earnings Tuesday. The company is likely to report a moderate year-on-year rise in its top line and almost flat growth in the bottom line. Its net profit is expected to be INR 21.06 billion, flat on year but up 31% on quarter. The company's top line is seen at INR 98.31 billion, up nearly 8% on year and 38% on quarter.

 

Asian equity indices showed a mixed performance in early trade. South Korea's KOSPI shed over 4%, while the S&P/ASX 200 Index gained nearly 1%. Barring the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the other two major US indices closed lower Monday.  (Arundathi A R)

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Equity Alert: Indices in Asia mixed as Trump calls off new attack on Iran 

 

MUMBAI--0816 IST--Stock indices in Asia were mixed Tuesday morning after US President Donald Trump called off his plan to attack Iran. The July contract of Brent crude oil slipped lower and hovered below $110 per barrel. However, Trump threatened severe attacks on the West Asian nation if an acceptable peace deal is not agreed upon.

 

"I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, The Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Daniel Caine, and The United States Military, that we will NOT be doing the scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow, but have further instructed them to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment's notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

 

South Korea's benchmark KOSPI declined over 4% in early trade and the index saw more selling pressure compared to its peer indices in Asia. Shares of heavyweight stock Samsung Electronics Co. were down more than 4% and those of SK Hynix fell almost 5%. LG Energy Solution was also down almost 4%. 

 

Meanwhile, Japan's GDP expanded at a better-than-expected 2.1% in the March quarter on an annualised basis. Reuters had forecast the country's economy to grow 1.7%. Better consumption and higher exports drove the growth in GDP.

 

"The economy may contract in the second quarter but if it's just about prices rising overall, it can probably resume a recovery thereafter. If there's huge supply disruptions, the damage to growth could be so severe the BOJ may not have scope to raise interest rates in June," Yoshiki Shinke, senior executive economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, told Reuters. 

 

The following were the levels of major Asian indices at 0816 IST:

 

Index	Level	Change in %
CSI 300 Index	4793.4119	(-)0.83
Hang Seng Index	25800.52	0.49
Nikkei 225 Day	60457.35	(-)0.59
TOPIX FIRST SECTION	3840.70	0.37
KOSPI	7206.83	(-)4.11
FTSE Singapore Strait Times	5026.95	0.60
S&P/ASX 200 Index	8583.30	0.92

 

(Ruchira Kagita)

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Equity Alert: US indices end mixed as concerns of economic instability rise

 

MUMBAI--0740 IST--Wall Street ended mixed Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average managing to advance but the NASDAQ Composite and the S&P 500 closing lower for the second consecutive session. With bond yields rising, concerns about high borrowing costs and a stick inflationary situation due to the prolonged war in West Asia mounted. 

 

"There's concern about the rally we've had in a short period of time, and there's some profit-taking," Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder, told Reuters.

 

Technlogy stocks, however, led to losses in the NASDAQ on Monday. Shares of Micron Technology fell almost 6%, those of SanDisk Corp. over 5%, those of Oracle Corp. more than 3%, and those of Nvidia Corp. and Broadcom around 1?ch. Only four of the 11 S&P 500 sectoral indices ended in the red, and the S&P 500 Information Technology showed the weakest performance compared to its peer indices. The index fell nearly 1%.

"From a positioning standpoint and how stretched things have gotten, probably means that you don't see as sharp of the rallies that we were seeing certainly off the throes of the low in March," Kevin Gordon, head of macro research and strategy at the Schwab Center for Financial Research, told CNBC. 

 

Following were the closing levels of major US indices on Monday:

 

US Indices	Levels	Change in %
Dow Jones Industrial Average	49686.12	0.32
NASDAQ Composite	26090.734	(-)0.51
S&P 500	7403.05	(-)0.07

 

(Ruchira Kagita)

 

US$1 = INR 96.35

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

 

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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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