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Informist, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026

By Arundathi A R

MUMBAI – Headline equity indices are likely to start the week with a rangebound movement as indicated by the GIFT Nifty's August futures contract levels. Optimism for a final diplomatic outcome from West Asia has dimmed again as per the latest comments of US President Donald Trump. Crude oil prices resumed its climb, rising to around $85 a barrel. Shares of Titan Co. will be in spotlight Monday as the company announced its June quarter results Friday post-market hours.

In an interview with Axios Sunday, Trump said his administration was watching economic pressure mounting on Iran. "We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money," Axios reported, quoting Trump. He stressed that Iran "is in very bad shape" economically and has no money to pay its troops, as per the Axios report. The US naval blockade has exacerbated the Iranian regime's economic crisis, Trump said. "It will work out. It always works out. It's like a chess game," he added.

In another development, Iran said on Sunday that a deal with Oman defining new shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz was in its final stages, Reuters reported. But the country reiterated that the waterway would only reopen once the US met other conditions. An agreement between Iran and Oman was close and could soon reopen the waterway, ‌which carried a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments before Iran blocked it in response to the US and Israeli attacks, Reuters reported citing a US official.

At 0730 IST, the October futures contract of Brent crude oil was over 1% higher at $84.70 a barrel. Meanwhile, for the whole month, crude oil prices shed almost 4%, after being largely volatile, reacting to developments in West Asia. The current price levels of crude oil are over 16% higher since the war started in February. However, Trump Sunday said with oil down to slightly over $75 a barrel, US consumers are feeling less pain from the war, Axios reported quoting him.

For the June quarter, Titan Co. posted a net profit of INR 16.99 billion, way above analysts' expectation of INR 12.91 billion. Its total revenue from operations was at INR 181.01 billion, which fell below the Street's view of INR 206.48 billion. Strong consumer demand arising from the festival and Akshaya Tritiya sales across its core portfolio of jewellery, watches, and eyecare products in the June quarter helped Titan to report its highest profit growth since the September quarter of the financial year 2022-23 (Apr-Mar).

Investors are also expected to continue focusing on the new closing auction mechanism for the equity cash segment as the divergence between the closing levels of the Nifty 50 and the BSE Sensex continued. At the end of the continuous session at 1515 IST Friday, the Nifty 50 was at 24557 points, down 0.3% from Thursday, and the Sensex was at 78491.26 points, down 0.6%. After the closing auction session, the Nifty 50 ended at 24570.65, down 65.35 points or 0.3% from Thursday's close. This was nearly 14 points higher than the 1515 IST level. The Sensex ended at 78499.17, down 455.59 points or 0.6%.

Foreign institutional investors continued with buying Friday after selling for a brief period of two sessions. On Friday, they net bought shares worth INR 4.80 billion. Domestic institutional investors also net bought shares of INR 2.36 billion the previous session.

"Given the improving prospects in GDP (gross domestic product) growth and earnings growth in India, FPIs (foreign portfolio investors) are likely to continue their buying in India," V.K. Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments, said in a note. "But this is only to become a major trend since the US bond yields (the 10-year is at 4.67%) are high. This has the potential to attract lot of funds to the safe US bond markets," he said in the note.

At 0759 IST, the August futures contract of GIFT Nifty was marginally lower from its previous close at 24658.50. This was almost 88 points higher than the Nifty 50's previous close of 24570.65, signalling a rangebound movement for the index Monday.

"Going ahead, a decisive close above 24730 spot levels could lead it towards 24850 and higher levels in immediate near term," Vipin Kumar, assistant vice president of research at Globe Capital Market, said. "Conversely, a fall below 24400 spot could drag it back to 24130-25050 spot levels which serves as the gap support zone left during July 29, 2026 rally." 

All three major US indices closed higher Friday, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining over 1%. Barring the CSI 300 and S&P/ASX 200 indices, all Asian indices were higher in early trade Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 gained over 2%, while FTSE Singapore Strait was over 1% higher.  End

US$1 = INR 95.21

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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