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Informist, Monday, Jul. 20, 2026                                      Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

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Equity Alert: Asian markets open mixed amid West Asia escalations

 

MUMBAI--0738 IST--Asian markets opened mixed Monday as the war in West Asia escalated as the US military began its ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iran Sunday. Japanese markets are closed Monday for Marine Day.

 

South Korea's Kospi opened 4% lower as index heavyweights SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics both opened almost 3% lower. The China Securities Regulatory Commission has invited market participants to a meeting Monday to collect opinions for policymaking to promote stable market stability, the official Securities Times reported.

 

State-owned China Reform Holdings Corp. has spent 50 billion yuan buying stocks to stabilise the market and will continue to increase equity holdings. The company said it "is unwaveringly confident in the outlook for China's capital markets, and will resolutely support tech innovation and high-quality growth of state-owned companies," according to Reuters. 

 

China's CSI opened almost 2% higher. Hong Kong's Hang Seng opened 2% higher and was the best performer among its peers. China's stock market had tumbled more than 5% last week on concerns over liquidity among investors. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index traded almost flat. 

 

Following are the levels of key indices in the region at 0744 IST:

 

Index	Level	Change in %
Nikkei 225 Day	64141.12	(-)4.0
TOPIX FIRST SECTION	3919.21	(-)2.7
S&P/ASX 200 Index	8799.1	0.03
KOSPI Index	6543.52	(-)4.1
Hang Seng Index	25115.25	2.25
CSI 300 Index	4614.90	1.9
FTSE Singapore Strait Times	5521.52	0.2

 

(Deesha Jadhav)

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Equity Alert: US mkt closes down on AI sell-off despite good earnings season

 

MUMBAI--0700 IST--Major US indices closed lower Friday as the risk-off sentiment grew and took chips stocks down despite good corporate earnings for the second quarter so far. The West Asia war escalated as the US military began its ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iran on Sunday. 

 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost almost 1% and the S&P 500 also fell 1%. The Nasdaq Composite lost 1.4% as index heavyweights Nvidia and Alphabet Inc. closed 4.6% and 7.7% lower respectively. Shares of Netflix fell more than 7?ter the company's earnings forecast for the June quater weighed on investor sentiment. 

 

So far, 49 of the S&P 500 companies have reported their earnings. Of these, 90% have delivered better-than-expected results, according to LSEG data. Analysts now see year-on-year S&P 500 aggregate earnings growth of 26.0%, up from the 19.2% expected in April. 

 

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF dropped almost 9%. The semiconductors segment was hit hard after the Chinese startup Moonshot AI unveiled a new model which will narrow the gap with the top offerings in the US. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index is now down over 18% in July but is still up 65% year-to-date as compared to the S&P 500's nearly 9% gain over the same time.

 

Following are the closing levels of major US indices on Friday:

 

Index	Level	Change in %
Dow Jones Industrial Average	52146.42	(-)0.77
NASDAQ Composite	25520.24	(-)1.4
S&P 500	7457.69	(-)1

 

(Deesha Jadhav)

 

US$1 = INR 96.28 

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

 

Edited by Pankaj Aher

 

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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