8 of India's top-10 valued firms add Rs 1.90 trillion in market value last week

Indian equities staged a powerful comeback last week, with eight of the country's ten most-valued firms collectively adding a staggering Rs 1.90 trillion to their market value. This surge, snapping a two-week losing streak, was largely propelled by a burst of optimism surrounding a potential peace agreement between the United States and Iran, which significantly eased global geopolitical anxieties and buoyed investor sentiment in domestic financial and banking heavyweights like ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank. The renewed investor confidence follows a period of heightened volatility, where concerns over a prolonged US-Iran conflict had previously driven crude oil prices higher and triggered significant foreign institutional investor outflows from emerging markets, impacting India's global market capitalization ranking. While President Donald Trump declared on Saturday that a deal was imminent and scheduled for Sunday, Iranian officials, including Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei, have since urged caution on the timeline, indicating a complex path remains despite mediating efforts from Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. As the world awaits definitive confirmation on the US-Iran accord, Indian markets are expected to remain sensitive to further geopolitical developments and crude oil price movements. Domestically, ongoing Reserve Bank of India policy assessments and the progression of the critical monsoon season will also be keenly watched, with the IT sector, exemplified by the recent significant decline in Tata Consultancy Services' market value due to global tech slowdowns and AI disruption fears, facing continued structural headwinds.