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Informist, Wednesday, Jul. 8, 2026

 

By Gopika Balasubramanium

 

MUMBAI – Indian equity indices are expected to face selling pressure at open Wednesday amid renewed escalations in the West Asia war and continuation of the last-minute profit-booking in the previous session. Overnight, the US struck Iran in response to the latter's attack on three commercial ships that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The US called Iran's attacks unwarranted and a clear violation of the ceasefire. Most Asian indices were largely stable at open but have fallen now.

 

These escalations now undermine the interim peace deal between both the countries, reached a month ago. Following these attacks, brent crude prices inched up. At 0746 IST, the near-month contract of Brent crude oil on the Intercontinental Exchange were 2% higher at $75.9 a barrel. For the last two weeks, the crude prices have hovered around $72 a barrel.     

 

The Nifty 50's attempt to break out above 24500 which was met with late-session profit booking Tuesday and the geopolitical tensions dragged the Gift NIFTY 100–150 points lower, signalling immediate selling pressure at the open, Bhavya Shah, technical analyst at StoxBox, said. For Wednesday's session, "24500 points will act as a critical resistance, followed by major overhead supply at 24800 near the 200-day moving average," the analyst said. "On the downside, 24200 (points) serves as the immediate support ...with the ultimate psychological level at 24000," he added.

 

At 0746 IST, the July contract of GIFT Nifty was at 24231, down 20.5 points or 0.1% from its previous close. On Tuesday, the headline Nifty 50 index closed lower by 31.65 points or 0.1% at 24398.70. The 50-stock index had retreated after coming close to 24550 points, the resistance level for Tuesday, and briefly slipped into the red.

 

The latest escalations in the West Asia war risks the start of another disruption in energy markets amid cooling crude oil prices. These may also add to the uncertainty among investors, who have been struggling with concern on whether the artificial intelligence-fuelled rally in markets overreached. While other emerging markets have been persistently volatile due to worries on AI-led rally, domestic indices have been more or less stable, saving for occasional bouts of volatility. India VIX, which gauges the fear of domestic investors, has eased to 11.6475 on Tuesday, close to levels seen before West Asia war.   

 

Overnight, in the US, the three benchmark equity indices closed lower, with Nasdaq Composite down 1.2%. This was mainly due to traders offloading shares of chipmakers due to mounting doubts on the sustainability of artificial intelligence-led rally there. There was a sell-off in the US and Asian chip stocks despite Samsung Electronics Co.'s strong earnings. Tuesday, Micron and Sandisk closed 5-7% lower. Investors would now track the minutes from the June meeting of Federal Open Market Committee due later in the day. End 

 

US$1 = INR 94.96

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

 

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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