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Informist, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026                                      Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

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Equity Alert: Seen in range; oil rises to $90/bbl on escalation in Iran war

 

MUMBAI--0835 IST--Headline equity indices are expected to move in a range Wednesday, suggested by the movement in the GIFT Nifty levels. Brent crude oil prices surged to around $90 a barrel on fresh escalation in the West Asia war. Technical analysts expect positive sentiment in the market as long as the Nifty 50 sustains above the 24400 level.

 

At 0831 IST, the October futures contract of Brent crude oil was nearly 1% higher from Tuesday at $89.63 a barrel. Oil prices have gained almost 2% in the past seven days. Within the last 30 days, oil prices rose 15%. The current crude oil prices are 23% higher than the pre-war levels.

 

At 0832 IST, the August futures contract of the GIFT Nifty was largely flat at 24559. This suggested a rangebound movement for indices, as the GIFT Nifty levels were over 87 points higher than the Nifty 50's previous close of 24471.70. However, Sunny Agrawal, fundamental research head at SBI Securities, expects markets to remain volatile in the near term, with geopolitical developments, crude prices and earnings outcomes continuing to drive investor sentiment," he said in a note.

 

Shares of Grasim Industries and Apollo Hospitals Enterprise will be in the spotlight as these companies will announce June quarter results later in the day. For Grasim Industries, two broking firms expect the company to report a net profit and one projected a net loss. Higher realisations in the viscose staple fibre and chemicals businesses are expected to support earnings, while continued losses in the paints and business-to-business segments are likely to weigh on the bottom line, analysts said. 

 

Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd. expects the company to report a net profit of INR 700 million for the reporting quarter and Kotak Institutional Equities expects net profit of Grasim at INR 1.30 billion. On the other hand, Nuvama Wealth Management Ltd. expects the company to post a net loss of INR 712 million. The company's revenue is expected to be between INR 118.16 billion and INR 129.12 billion.

 

Apollo Hospitals is expected to report a consolidated net profit of about INR 5.6 billion for the June quarter, up 29% on year and 5% on quarter. Its net sales are likely to rise 18% on year and 4% on quarter to nearly INR 69 billion. Improved occupancy in the hospitals business and steady growth in the pharmacy and clinics segments are likely to help the company report healthy earnings growth for the quarter.

 

All three major US indices settled lower Tuesday, with the Nasdaq Composite shedding nearly 1%. Indices closed lower weighed by declines in major technology stocks such as SpaceX, Amazon, and Alphabet, as investors turned less optimistic about a deal to end the war in West Asia. Asian equity indices were mixed in early trade with South Korea's KOSPI leading the gains, up 3.5%. FTSE Singapore Strait and S&P/ ASX 200 indices were in red.  (Arundathi A R)

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Equity Alert: US markets close down, dragged down by tech stocks 

 

MUMBAI--0703 IST--Major US indices ended lower pressured by declines in major technology stocks such as SpaceX, Amazon, and Alphabet, as investors grew less optimistic about a deal to end the war in West Asia. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed almost 1% lower while the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed slightly lower. 

 

The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed as long ‌as the US does not change its behaviour and accept Iran's conditions to end the war, the newly appointed secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council said, according to a Reuters report.

 

"As has been the case for months, it's just really hard to come to an agreement that works for everyone," Reuters quoted Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird as saying. "Oil is a little higher, pricing in more uncertainty around that. The market has obviously gyrated around this conflict at times, but it hasn't been the big headwind that a lot of people imagined it might be."

 

Meanwhile, shares of Amazon closed 2.1% lower, while Alphabet and SpaceX both closed around 4% lower, weighing on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite. Shares of Apple closed 1% lower. 

 

However, shares of cloud computing company CoreWeave closed more than 2% higher after the company's revenue for the June quarter more than doubled to $2.58 billion amid strong demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure. Among others, alternative asset managers Apollo Global and Blackstone closed around 6% and 4% higher, respectively, after partnering with Nvidia on compute-financing platforms which will mobilise $500 billion.

 

Investors await the US July retail inflation data due later in the day, which could influence expectations for the Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision in September. Investors remain divided over the possibility of a rate hike in September. The likelihood of an interest rate hike has dropped to 48.5% from 52.2?rlier, according to the CME Fedwatch tool. Rising energy prices caused by the war in West Asia have increased inflation concerns and made it more difficult for central banks to determine their policy paths.

 

Following were the closing levels of major US indices Tuesday:

 

Index	Level	Change in %
Dow Jones Industrial Average	53791.85	(-)0.3
NASDAQ Composite	26445.45	(-)0.6
S&P 500	7728.20	(-)0.3

 

(Deesha Jadhav)

 

US$1 = INR 95.44

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

 

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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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