GIFT Nifty points to a 200-point gap-up as Brent slides 2.7% and Asia claws back losses

Indian shares look set for a gap-up start on Monday, as the gloom that hung over Asia at dawn faded through the early morning. GIFT Nifty, the dollar-denominated Nifty futures traded at GIFT City in Gandhinagar, was near 23,291, about 205 points or 0.89% higher, ahead of the 9:15 am open. The Nifty 50 closed Friday at 23,053.10 and the Sensex at 74,459.53.

The change in mood comes mostly from oil. Brent crude was down 2.7% at $110.4 a barrel by about 8:45 am IST, and US crude was 2.9% lower at $101.1, as Iranian and Qatari officials kept talking about a way out of the conflict in the Gulf. Brent rose 13.6% in October, and every dollar off the price eases the import bill of a country that buys most of its crude abroad. Attacks on tankers near the Strait of Hormuz have not stopped, however, which keeps a floor under prices.

Asia steadies after a rough start

Asian markets opened under the shadow of Friday’s sell-off in US technology shares. The Nasdaq 100 lost 3.5% that day and the Philadelphia semiconductor index plunged 7.2%, as Intel fell close to 29%, its steepest one-day drop in more than four decades. In early Asian trade the Kospi fell 1.06%, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.39% and the Topix 0.51%.

By late morning the picture had changed. Tokyo had cut its loss to about 0.3%, Seoul’s Kospi had swung to a gain of 1.4%, and the MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down only 0.2%. US stock futures rose, with the S&P 500 contract up 0.4% and the Nasdaq contract up 0.8%, and European futures pointed slightly higher. The yen was weaker at 157.80 to the dollar.

Investors are still uneasy about how much American technology companies are spending on artificial intelligence, a combined $750 billion this year, after results from Alphabet and Amazon. The Nasdaq fell nearly 7% in October, its worst month since April 2025. Traders also price a 72% chance that the US Federal Reserve will raise rates by a quarter point in December, and the US votes in its midterm elections on Tuesday.

Results stocks in focus

At home, several large companies are in focus after their September-quarter numbers. Indian Oil Corporation posted a record standalone profit of ₹21,630 crore, against a loss of ₹2,661 crore in the previous quarter. Reliance Industries reported that profit attributable to shareholders rose 41% to ₹25,548 crore, and Jio Platforms, in its first results since listing last week, posted a 14% rise to ₹8,389 crore.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries went the other way, with consolidated profit down 36% to ₹1,989 crore. Bharat Electronics reported a 19.8% rise in standalone profit to ₹1,541 crore, ahead of market estimates.

ITC, Marico, NALCO, NLC India and Container Corporation of India are due to report results later on Monday. The final HSBC manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for October is also due during the day.