Overview
- Progress in U.S.‑Iran negotiations had driven strong risk appetite and big rallies on Monday with Asian and Pakistani markets surging on hopes the Strait of Hormuz would reopen.
- U.S. forces carried out strikes on southern Iran on Tuesday that Washington called defensive and that Iranian officials publicly condemned, reviving fears of military escalation and jolting energy markets.
- Brent crude jumped back toward $98–$100 per barrel after the strikes, reversing part of the decline prompted by earlier deal optimism and reintroducing near‑term inflation risk for importers.
- Indian equity benchmarks were volatile and finished lower on Tuesday with the Sensex down about 479 points and the Nifty below 24,000, while Pakistan’s KSE‑100 had surged roughly 3,881 points on earlier peace‑deal hopes.
- Provisional flow data show foreign portfolio investors trimmed positions while domestic institutional buyers provided heavy support, and U.S. markets still found tailwinds from strong AI earnings that kept Wall Street near record highs.