Summary of this article
Stock markets traded range-bound as investors assessed geopolitical news
Investors remained cautious amid fresh escalation in US-Iran tensions
Indian stock markets continued to trade in a range-bound manner on April 20 with slight negative returns as US-Iran tensions escalated after seizure of an Iranian vessel. Investors remained cautious on the developments in West Asia and avoided aggressive trades.
The Nifty was trading 25.1 points downs at 24,328.45 and the Sensex was trading 137.3 points lower at 78,356.22.
US President Donald Trump on April 19 said that a US missile destroyer had disabled an Iranian cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman and seized the vessel. This marked an escalation in the blockade and comes after Iran fired on commercial vessels which were passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump said that he would “knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran” if Iran did not agree to US’ terms to end the conflict. Iran on the other hand has said that the US blockade was a violation of the ceasefire and cited it as one of the reasons for calling off the second round of peace talks which was expected in Islamabad on April 20.
Brent crude oil rose over 5 per cent above $95 per barrel amid fresh tensions in West Asia. The rupee fell marginally to 92.71 against the US dollar. However, market participants have mostly already discounted the worst of the US-Iran conflict and did not show aggressive sell-off sentiments.
Among sectoral indices, the Nifty PSU Bank led the gains on the NSE, trading around 1.3 per cent up. State Bank of India was among the top gainers on the Nifty 50, trading 2.8 per cent higher at Rs 1,110.05 per share. The banking and financial services sectors were among the gainers, along with the consumer durables and FMCG sectors. Meanwhile, the realty, IT, and telecom sectors led the losses in the indices.
Shares of Jio Financial Services fell the most among the Nifty 50, trading 1.9 per cent lower at Rs 239.2 per share. This was after the company reported a 14 per cent fall in net profit for the March quarter. Among broader market indices, the Nifty Smallcap index was trading marginally down, around 0.1 per cent lower, while the Nifty Midcap index was trading 0.2 per cent higher.
