War Financial News

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Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd stock has fallen by about 10% to ₹1,376 since the West Asia conflict began on 27 February. The fall would have been steeper if not for the company’s business updates highlighting that it had clocked 11% year-on-year growth in cargo volumes to 46 million tonnes (MT) in March.

The ongoing war in West Asia has cast a pall of uncertainty over the global economy. The disruptions in energy supplies have begun to ripple through supply chains across the world. In its latest monthly review of the Indian economy, the finance ministry has noted: “Recent shocks are being transmitted through higher input costs, supply constraints and pressures across sectors, with early indications of some moderation in economic activity.”For economic policymakers, managing a disruption in supply is far more complicated than responding to a sudden shift in demand.

Effects of the global disruptions resulting from America and Israel’s war on Iran have started to show on India’s economy. On Monday, the final HSBC India services purchasing managers’ index (PMI), compiled by S&P Global, showed a fall to 57.5 in March from 58.1 in February, marking the slowest rate of expansion in 14 months. This follows a bigger fall in the manufacturing PMI to 53.9 in March from 56.9, the lowest level in nearly four years.Relatively speaking, the services sector has done better.

The push is ambitious. State-run EESL is exploring interest-free EMI options, in talks with global lenders like the World Bank and ADB, to make induction cooking accessible for economically weaker households.

“We do blue-collar hiring, mainly in the manufacturing and supply chain sectors, and there, the costs of getting workforce in the metros has gone up by about 15-20% in a month,” said Neeti Sharma, chief executive officer of TeamLease Digital, part of the staffing firm TeamLease Group.Scarcity of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has forced construction and manufacturing sectors' blue-collared workers—scaffolders, plumbers, welders, etc.—back to their hometowns and villages.Radheshyam and four others together iron clothes in south Mumbai. These migrant workers from Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh, together typically use one LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cylinder for a little over a month.

Demand for electric cookstoves shot up after the war began as consumers rushed to compensate for a shortage in LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cylinders. On 12 March, an Amazon India spokesperson told Mint that sales of induction cooktops increased 30X in just two days.Prices of these cooktops, too, have risen, though not abnormally.

Between US President Donald Trump’s war in west Asia and a chip shortage triggered by Nvidia’s focus on supplying artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips, India’s top three smartphone brands Vivo, Oppo and Samsung, as well as Realme, Xiaomi and Nothing have emerged as the first casualties in a once-thriving market—increasing smartphone prices by as much as 40% across their portfolios.The price hikes are significant: smartphones make for India’s single-largest electronics category, with sales of over $43 billion through 2025. Since the pandemic in 2021, India has struggled to revive its smartphone market due to a stagnation of new features and an increasingly saturated market.While companies so far managed single-digit revenue growth on the back of rising premium phone sales, the current market conditions come as a double whammy: consumers are putting phone purchases on the backburner due to rising prices of basic needs such as cooking gas even as the rise in prices does nothing to aid the ailing market.Vivo, Samsung and Oppo accounted for 47% of the 152 million smartphones sold in the country last year, according to data from market researcher International Data Corp.

NEW DELHI: Oil prices have been on the boil since the war between the US, Israel and Iran broke out on 28 February. To ease supply concerns and prices of over $100 per barrel, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies including Russia, together known as OPEC+, agreed to increase production in May.

Mint, he said crude prices have risen and that some energy infrastructure assets in West Asia have been affected by the war. Even if tensions ease, supplies are unlikely to return to pre-war levels soon, keeping prices elevated for longer.

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The global landscape has shifted significantly over the past few weeks, triggered by the unfolding geopolitical complexities in West Asia.As we stepped into 2026, the sentiment was one of cautious optimism. The probability of a global recession appeared slim, and investors were pivoting aggressively toward growth assets.

An old commodity-trade adage is that the Middle East “sells hydrocarbons to buy carbohydrates.” The desert states send out their oil and natural gas, and in comes wheat and rice. There are a few things produced in the Gulf, however, that are crucial to global food production: nitrogen fertilizer such as urea and ammonia, and the gas used to make them.So the war in Iran—and its blockage of the Strait of Hormuz waterway—has prompted warnings about another bout of global food inflation similar to the one that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite such fears, the agricultural market isn’t at risk today, at least in the short term.

₹8,136 crore – its best-ever, driven annually, by new project launches and geographical diversification. Still, it missed the ₹8,500 crore pre-sales target set for the fiscal year.Sobha launched nine projects in six cities during FY26. Out of these, three were in the March quarter (Q4FY26), consequently, pre-sales for Q4 rose year-on-year to ₹2,039 crore.

As the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) heads into its first policy decision of the new financial year on 8 April, a rate pause is widely expected even as a rapidly shifting macro landscape triggered by the West Asia war may force a shift in its outlook.A Mint poll of 10 economists and market participants points to rising inflation risks and a weakening growth outlook, with all expecting the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to hold rates while signalling a more cautious policy stance.In 2025, the RBI had cumulatively cut the repo rate—the rate at which it lends short-term funds to banks—by 125 basis points (bps), with the last cut of 25 bps in December to 5.25%.“We do expect RBI to hold onto the repo rate and stance,” said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Bank of Baroda. The MPC’s stance has remained neutral since June 2025.“The tone will be cautious,” Sabnavis added.

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On 31 March, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) threatened that it would target 18, mostly American, technology companies in retaliation to US-Israeli attacks on Iran. It declared that “since the main element in designing and tracking terror targets are American [Information and Communications Technology] and [artificial intelligence or AI] companies... the main institutions effective in terrorist operations [against Iran] will be our legitimate targets.” Employees were warned to vacate their workplaces and residents living within a kilometre’s radius of their premises were told to evacuate to safety.On Iran’s target list were Cisco, HP, Intel, Oracle, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Meta, IBM, Dell, Palantir, Nvidia, JPMorgan, Tesla, GE and Boeing.

Amid daily price swings in crude oil, based on what the US or Iran says on a given day, global growth prospects for 2026 appear grim. Even if the war ends within days, rebuilding energy infrastructure in West Asia, battered by bombings and drone attacks, will take months if not years.

₹800 crore handicrafts industry is seeing orders stall, cash get locked up and livelihoods fray—exposing its deep reliance on export markets.In Eidgah’s Narwara locality, Pashmina weaver Rauf Ahmad Qureshi, 54, keeps one eye on his loom and the other on television updates from the Gulf, where demand for his work is shaped. “We get work through traders, so any crisis impacts us quickly,” he told Mint. “An artisan lives hand to mouth.

The government is exploring ways to increase domestic production of induction cookers, petrochemicals, and other essential industrial inputs, as the West Asia war shows signs of continuing for some time, according to two people in the know.Officials from the department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT), the power ministry and the directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) reviewed strategies to boost output in sectors that could face supply disruptions if the war continues for the next few months, said one of the people mentioned above.“Discussions centred on accelerating production of induction cookers and vessel heaters, strengthening the petrochemical value chain, and ensuring adequate availability of gunny (bori) bags—seen as critical for both industrial use and agricultural supply chains,” the other person said.The government has already taken pre-emptive steps by cutting import duties on several key petrochemical products to cushion against potential shortages and price spikes.Officials said the move is part of a broader contingency framework, with ministries preparing for multiple scenarios, including a prolonged conflict that could disrupt shipping routes, inflate logistics costs and tighten availability of critical inputs.The government on Thursday announced a temporary waiver on customs duties for select essential petrochemical imports, which will remain in force until 30 June.

steel tubes market, supported by an expansive distribution network.That scale advantage is difficult for competitors to replicate, and remains the backbone of APL’s pricing power and market-share resilience. Thanks to this pricing power, Nuvama Institutional Equities expects Ebitda per tonne to remain healthy at over ₹5,500.Importantly, this is no longer just a volume-led story.