Indian Markets Closed For Ambedkar Jayanti

(RTTNews) - Indian stock markets remain shut today for Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar Jayanti.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty fell around 0.9 percent each on Monday after the historic U.S.-Iran peace talks failed, fueling worries that the Middle East conflict may last longer than feared.

The rupee slumped by 56 paise to settle at 93.39 against the U.S. dollar amid concerns about rising crude oil prices and continued foreign fund outflows.

Government data released after market hours showed that India's consumer price inflation accelerated in March, driven by higher food prices.

Consumer price inflation advanced to 3.4 percent from 3.21 percent in February, while analysts expected prices to rise 3.48 percent.

However, inflation continues to remain well within the central bank's broad tolerance band of 2 percent to 6 percent.

Foreign investors net sold shares worth Rs 1,983 crore on Monday, while domestic institutional investors net bought shares to the extent of Rs 2,432 crore, according to provisional exchange data.

Asian markets traded higher this morning, gold rose toward $4,800 an ounce after two sessions of declines and U.S. Treasury yields were little changed, while the safe-haven dollar fell to a 1-1/2-month low against a basket of currencies and Brent crude prices fell nearly 2 percent below $98 a barrel amid signs of potential U.S.-Iran dialogue to end the war.

Discussions between Washinton and Tehran are ongoing and another round of negotiations remains possible, with Turkey reportedly working to bridge differences between both sides, according to CNN.

The U.S. administration remains cautiously optimistic that a diplomatic breakthrough is still achievable, and both sides could consider extending the ceasefire deadline to allow additional time for negotiations, it was said.

U.S. stocks reversed course to end sharply higher overnight as the earnings season got underway and President Donald Trump said Iran had reached out to his administration and wanted to make a deal very badly, helping offset earlier concerns over the announcement of a naval blockade of all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.

Investors shrugged off data that showed existing home sales slipped to a nine-month low in March amid tight inventory and growing concerns over the labor market. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite surged 1.2 percent, the S&P 500 rallied 1 percent and the Dow added 0.6 percent.

European stocks closed well off their worst levels on Monday. The pan-European STOXX 600 slid 0.2 percent.

The German DAX and France's CAC 40 both dipped by 0.3 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 eased 0.2 percent.