Indian Shares Seen Lower Amid Renewed Middle East Attacks

(RTTNews) - Indian shares are seen opening on a sluggish note on Monday as investors await the June-quarter earnings results from several heavyweights and monitor the latest developments surrounding the U.S.-Iran conflict.

Oil prices traded higher this morning, with Brent crude prices surging over 4 percent toward $80 a barrel on concerns over potential supply disruptions after the U.S. launched fresh strikes against Iran.

The U.S. military launched another round of strikes against Iran overnight and into early Monday "to degrade their ability to attack commercial ships freely transiting the Strait of Hormuz."

These attacks came in response to an Iranian strike on a container ship in the critical waterway the day before.

Iran responded to these strikes by attacking Gulf Arab states, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Oman.

Apart from geopolitical tensions, the release of CPI and WPI inflation figures and the IMD updates on the progress of the southwest monsoon may influence trading sentiment as the week progresses.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty ended down around 0.3 percent each last week as oil price volatility following tit-for-tat talks between Iran and the United States created uncertainty for markets worldwide.

Asian markets were broadly lower this morning amid renewed tensions in the Middle East and anxiety over the status of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran announced the closure of the waterway "until further notice"- a claim U.S. military and maritime authorities rejected.

The dollar strengthened against its major peers while gold prices traded down more than 1 percent at $4,070 an ounce ahead of key U.S. CPI and PPI data as well as Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's first congressional testimony due this week.

U.S. stocks ended a lackluster session modestly higher on Friday, with chip and artificial intelligence-related stocks surging following a strong market debut from South Korean memory chip maker SK Hynix.

Macroeconomic developments also drew significant attention as the Federal Reserve delivered its semi-annual Monetary Policy Report to Congress ahead of Chairman Kevin Warsh's first congressional testimony.

In the report, Fed officials noted that inflation remains elevated but they don't think it will be lasting.

The Dow and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite both rose around 0.3 percent while the S&P 500 added 0.4 percent.

European stocks ended mixed on Friday after U.S. President Donald Grump said on his social-media platform that he agreed to continue talks with Iran but the ceasefire between the United States and Iran is over.

The pan-European STOXX 600 finished marginally higher. The German DAX slid 0.2 percent, while France's CAC 40 and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 both edged up around 0.2 percent.