(RTTNews) - India shares look set to open on an upbeat note on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would end the Iran war without reopening the Strait of Hormuz, especially as the conflict looked set to extend beyond his initial four-to-six-week timeline.
Risk-on sentiment returned to global markets on optimism that the end of the war lead to a pullback by oil prices and ease inflation concerns.
Indian stock markets were closed on Tuesday for Mahavir Jayanti. On Monday, benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty both fell over 2 percent as Brent crude prices topped $115 a barrel on fears of more disruptions to shipping lanes, posing a significant risk to inflation, the current account and fiscal deficits.
Both the indexes plummeted around 11 percent in March, marking their worst monthly loss since the COVID-19-led rout in March 2020.
The Indian rupee hit a record low past 95 to the dollar despite the RBI's decision to tighten limits on banks' FX positions.
The rupee fell 11 percent over the fiscal year ending March, marking its steepest fall since 2011-12 as tariff worries and rising energy risks amid escalating U.S.-Iran tensions rattled foreign investors.
Domestic institutional investors net bought shares worth Rs 14,895 crore on Monday, while foreign investors net sold shares to the extent of Rs 11,163 crore, as per provisional data on the exchanges.
Meanwhile, according to official data released after market hours on Monday, India's industrial output growth improved somewhat in February on the back of manufacturing.
Industrial production advanced 5.2 percent year-over-year in February, following an upwardly revised 5.1 percent expansion in January. Economists had expected the growth to ease to 4.2 percent.
Asian markets were sharply higher this morning after Wall Street's stellar rally overnight on renewed hopes that the Iran war could soon end.
South Korea's Kospi surged over 6 percent and Japan's Nikkei added more than 4 percent while benchmark indexes in Hong Kong and Australia were up around 2 percent.
Investors were reacting to regional factory activity readings, with China's manufacturing activity expanding for a fourth straight month in March.
The dollar weakened, bond yields dipped and gold rose toward $4,700 an ounce with the easing of Middle East tensions.
Brent crude prices for June delivery were up over 1 percent at $105.40 a barrel, extending a strong March rally as Strait of Hormuz disruption persists.
U.S. stocks soared overnight, with all three major indexes posting their best showing of 2026, after President Trump said the U.S. could end its Iran military campaign within 2-3 weeks, claiming that Washington had already achieved its core objectives of hobbling Iran's nuclear ambitions and bringing a regime change in the country.
Asserting that Tehran no longer possessed functional defense infrastructure, Trump claimed that the U.S. "will not have anything to do with" what happens next in the Strait of Hormuz and that other nations can reopen the key shipping lane that supplies 20 percent of the world's oil consumption.
Countries that did not help the U.S. and Israel in attacking Iran could buy oil from the U.S. or "just take it" from Hormuz, Trump added.
"Let the countries that are using the strait, let them go and open it… because I would imagine whoever's controlling the oil will be very happy to open the strait." The U.S. President will address the nation on Iran at 21:00 ET (23:00 GMT) later today.
Trump's remarks came after he told U.S. allies to "go get your own oil" and blamed them for refusing to be more involved in its war effort.
In economic releases, a measure of U.S. consumer confidence inched up again in March, while the JOLTS report for February suggested the labor market is continuing its gradual cooling.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 3.8 percent, the S&P 500 spiked 2.9 percent and the Dow surged 2.5 percent after bruising losses in March.
European stocks rose on Tuesday but notched their worst monthly performance in six years on geopolitical and inflation fears.
The pan European Stoxx 600 gained 0.4 percent. The German DAX and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 both rose by half a percent while France's CAC 40 added 0.6 percent.
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