Times Top News

Times Top News

Crude oil prices decline as US-Iran talks ease supply concerns

Crude oil prices decline as US-Iran talks ease supply concerns

by | Feb 9, 2026 | Business


February crude oil futures were trading at ₹5712 on MCX during the initial hour of trading on Monday against the previous close of ₹5824, down by 1.92 per cent, and March futures were trading at ₹5714 against the previous close of ₹5829, down by 1.97 per cent.
| Photo Credit:
sankai

Crude oil futures traded lower on Monday morning as diplomatic talks between the US and Iran eased concerns over global supply disruptions.

At 9.58 am on Monday, April Brent oil futures were at $67.36, down by 1.01 per cent, and March crude oil futures on WTI (West Texas Intermediate) were at $62.93, down by 0.98 per cent. February crude oil futures were trading at ₹5712 on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) during the initial hour of trading on Monday against the previous close of ₹5824, down by 1.92 per cent, and March futures were trading at ₹5714 against the previous close of ₹5829, down by 1.97 per cent.

In their Commodities Feed for Monday, Warren Patterson, Head of Commodities Strategy of ING Think, and Ewa Manthey, Commodities Strategist, said oil prices came under renewed pressure in early Monday morning trading in Asia after nuclear talks between the US and Iran were seen as constructive. A further round of talks is being planned.

Mentioning that there si still plenty of uncertainty over how things will evolve, they said this suggests the market will likely continue to price in a risk premium.

Though the indirect talks were reportedly constructive, the US on Friday imposed additional sanctions targeting Iranian oil exports. US President Donald Trump also signed an executive order on the same day. It will allow tariffs on goods from countries that do business with Iran. He stopped short of applying the tariffs, they said.

“We’re likely to get plenty of noise over the week concerning views on the oil market, with International Energy Week kicking off in London this week. In addition, the EIA will release its Short-Term Energy Outlook on Tuesday. This is followed by OPEC’s monthly oil market report on Wednesday, and the IEA’s monthly oil report on Thursday,” they said.

February natural gas futures were trading at ₹291.80 on MCX during the initial hour of trading on Monday against the previous close of ₹320.20, down by 8.87 per cent.

On the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), February castorseed contracts were trading at ₹6422 in the initial hour of trading on Monday against the previous close of ₹6393, up by 0.45 per cent.

April dhaniya futures were trading at ₹11026 on NCDEX in the initial hour of trading on Monday against the previous close of ₹11210, down by 1.64 per cent.

Published on February 9, 2026



Source link

सोने-चांदी की कीमतों में फिर लौटी तेजी, जानिए 9 फरवरी को दिल्ली से चेन्नई तक कितना बढ़ गया रेट

सोने-चांदी की कीमतों में फिर लौटी तेजी, जानिए 9 फरवरी को दिल्ली से चेन्नई तक कितना बढ़ गया रेट

by | Feb 9, 2026 | Business


Show Quick Read

Key points generated by AI, verified by newsroom

Gold Silver Price Today: घरेलू फ्यूचर मार्केट में सोने-चांदी की कीमतों में सोमवार, 9 फरवरी को तेजी देखने को मिल रही है. मल्टी कमोडिटी एक्सचेंज (MCX) पर 5 मार्च, 2026 का एक्सपायरी वाला गोल्ड फ्यूचर वायदा सोमवार को 1,54,224 रुपये (प्रति 10 ग्राम) पर ओपन हुआ. इसके आखिरी कारोबारी दिन एमसीएक्स पर सोना 1,53,931 रुपये पर ट्रेड करते हुए बंद हुआ था.

9 फरवरी की सुबह 9:45 बजे, एमसीएक्स पर 5 मार्च का एक्सपायरी वाला गोल्ड 1,55,674 रुपए पर ट्रेड कर रहा था. जो कि पिछले दिन की बंद कीमत से लगभग 1800 रुपये की तेजी दिखाता है. एमसीएक्स गोल्ड शुरुआती कारोबार में 1,57,00 रुपए के हाई लेवल पर पहुंचा था. 

अगर आज आप इन बहुमूल्य धातुओं की खरीदारी का प्लान बना रहे हैं तो, आपको अपने शहर का ताजा रेट जरूर पता करना चाहिए. आइए जानते हैं कि आज आपको अपने शहर में सोना और चांदी खरीदने के लिए कितना पैसा खर्च करना होगा….

चांदी की कीमत

एमसीएक्स पर 5 मार्च 2026 का एक्सपायरी वाला सिल्वर 2,60,301 रुपये (प्रति किलो) पर ट्रेड कर रहा है. जो कि पिछले दिन की बंद कीमत से लगभग 10,400 रुपये की तेजी दिखाता है. एमसीएक्स सिल्वर शुरुआती कारोबार में 2,64,885 रुपये के हाई लेवल पर पहुंचा था. 

दिल्ली और मंबई में 10 ग्राम चांदी 2,849 रुपये की दर पर बिक रहा है. वहीं, 100 ग्राम चांदी खरीदने के लिए ग्राहकों को 28,490 रुपये खर्च करने होंगे. चेन्नई और कोलकाता में 10 ग्राम चांदी की कीमत 2,849 रुपये चल रही है.

आपके शहर में सोने का भाव (गुड रिटर्न के अनुसार)

दिल्ली में सोने के दाम  (प्रति 10 ग्राम)

24 कैरेट – 1,56,740 रुपए
22 कैरेट – 1,43,690 रुपए
18 कैरेट – 1,17,590 रुपए

मुंबई में सोने के दाम  (प्रति 10 ग्राम)

24 कैरेट – 1,56,590 रुपए
22 कैरेट – 1,43,540 रुपए
18 कैरेट – 1,17,440 रुपए

चेन्नई में सोने के दाम (प्रति 10 ग्राम)

24 कैरेट – 1,57,300 रुपए
22 कैरेट – 1,44,190 रुपए
18 कैरेट – 1,23,490 रुपए

कोलकाता में सोने के दाम  (प्रति 10 ग्राम)

24 कैरेट – 1,56,590 रुपए
22 कैरेट – 1,43,540 रुपए
18 कैरेट – 1,17,440 रुपए

अहमदाबाद में सोने के दाम  (प्रति 10 ग्राम)

24 कैरेट – 1,56,640 रुपए
22 कैरेट – 1,43,590 रुपए
18 कैरेट – 1,17,490 रुपए

लखनऊ में सोने के दाम  (प्रति 10 ग्राम)

24 कैरेट – 1,56,740 रुपए
22 कैरेट – 1,43,690 रुपए
18 कैरेट – 1,17,590 रुपए

पटना में सोने के दाम  (प्रति 10 ग्राम)

24 कैरेट – 1,56,640 रुपए
22 कैरेट – 1,43,590 रुपए
18 कैरेट – 1,17,490 रुपए

हैदराबाद में सोने के दाम  (प्रति 10 ग्राम)

24 कैरेट – 1,56,590 रुपए
22 कैरेट – 1,43,540 रुपए
18 कैरेट – 1,17,440 रुपए

यह भी पढ़ें: Stock Market 9 February: इंडिया-यूएस डील से बाजार बमबम; सेंसेक्स 420 अंक उछला, निफ्टी 25,815 के पार

 

 



Source link

What to know about Jimmy Lai’s journey from Hong Kong mogul to convict

What to know about Jimmy Lai’s journey from Hong Kong mogul to convict

by | Feb 9, 2026 | Business


A file photo of Media mogul Jimmy Lai, founder of Apple Daily, arrives the Court of Final Appeal by prison van in Hong Kong, China February 9, 2021.
| Photo Credit:
REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

To his supporters, former Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai is a fighter for democracy. To the government, he is a traitor to his motherland.

The 78-year-old outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist Party awaits sentencing Monday after being convicted in December of conspiring to commit sedition and collude with foreign forces.

Observers say his landmark trial came to symbolise a crackdown that began in 2020 on press and other freedoms that has changed Hong Kong, the former British colony that returned to China’s control in 1997.

The Hong Kong government insists Lai’s case has nothing to do with press freedom, but instead is an example of righteousness upheld by the law.

A migrant from mainland China, he made a fortune in the garment industry in Hong Kong and later founded the Apple Daily newspaper, where he wrote articles criticising the Chinese and Hong Kong governments for limiting freedoms. The publication eventually was shuttered and his words became trial evidence.

Here is what to know about his unusual journey to political activism that has ended, at least for the moment, in prison.

A stowaway founds a clothing giant

Lai was born in 1947 in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, once known as Canton, two years before the communists came to power.

He was just 12 when he stowed away on a fishing boat to Hong Kong, about 135 km (84 miles) from Guangzhou. Like many other Chinese of that era, Lai hoped for a better life in the British colony. Working as a child labourer in a glove factory served as his introduction to the garment industry.

In 1981, he founded Giordano, an affordable casual clothing chain that has grown into an international brand with 1,600 retail outlets in 30 countries, according to its website.

Shift to publishing gives Lai a voice

Lai sold his interest in Giordano in the mid-1990s when the company came under pressure from Beijing. That came after he called hard-line Premier Li Peng “the son of a turtle egg,” a slur in Chinese, after the communist leader justified the government’s deadly 1989 crackdown on protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

The violent suppression was a pivotal moment for Lai, he later said. Giordano printed T-shirts in support of the pro-democracy protests and he made his first foray into publishing in 1990, founding Next Magazine.

Five years later, he started the Apple Daily, a tabloid-style publication that drew readership with sometimes sensational reports and investigative scoops. The publication openly criticised the government, which some observers now say landed Lai in trouble about 25 years down the road.

Joining activists in Hong Kong’s streets

Lai took to the streets in 2014, taking part in the pro-democracy protests known as the Umbrella Movement that for months filled parts of Hong Kong. Demonstrators used umbrellas to shield themselves from police pepper spray. The Apple Daily ran articles sympathetic to the movement.

Lai came out again in 2019 for a new wave of protests that shook the government and led to the crackdown on the city’s freedoms. He also urged US Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to speak out on Hong Kong’s situation in meetings that became an issue during his trial.

The following year, China’s central government in Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong. Lai was arrested more than a month later.

Drawing the crucifixion

Lai has been in custody since December 2020. The food lover who was called “Fatty Lai” by some friends and even a rival newspaper appears to have become thinner behind bars.

A Roman Catholic, Lai made drawings in prison of the crucifixion of Jesus, according to his friend Robert Sirico, a priest who received one of the pictures.

“For truth prevails in God’s kingdom, and that’s good enough for me,” Lai testified in November 2024 during his trial, arguing that his Apple Daily writings were done without hostility or seditious intent.

In July 2020, shortly after the commencement of the national security law under which he was eventually convicted, Lai told The Associated Press that “Hong Kong is dead.” “If I have to go to prison, I don’t mind. I don’t care,” he said. “It won’t be something I can worry about, I’ll just relax and do what I have to do.”

Published on February 9, 2026



Source link

Japan PM Sanae Takaichi’s party wins record landslide in lower house election

Japan PM Sanae Takaichi’s party wins record landslide in lower house election

by | Feb 8, 2026 | Business


Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), speaks to the media in front of a board displaying the names of LDP candidates at the LDP headquarters on general election day in Tokyo, Japan, February 8, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

The governing party of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi secured a more than two-thirds majority in a key parliamentary election on Sunday, Japanese media reported, citing preliminary results.

Takaichi, in a televised interview with public television network NHK, said that after the sweeping victory she is now ready to pursue her policies.

NHK, citing results of vote counts, said Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, alone secured 316 seats by early Monday, comfortably surpassing a 261-seat absolute majority in the 465-member lower house, the more powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament. That marks a record since the party’s foundation in 1955 and surpasses the previous record of 300 seats won in 1986 by late Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.

A smiling Takaichi placed a big red ribbon above each winner’s name on a signboard at the LDP’s headquarters, as accompanying party executives applauded.

Despite the lack of a majority in the other chamber, the upper house, the huge jump from the preelection share in the superior lower house would allow Takaichi to make progress on a right-wing agenda that aims to boost Japan’s economy and military capabilities as tensions grow with China and she tries to nurture ties with the United States.

Takaichi said that she would firmly push forward her policy goals while trying to gain support from the opposition.

“I will be flexible,” she said.

Takaichi is hugely popular, but the governing LDP, which has ruled Japan for most of the last seven decades, has struggled with funding and religious scandals in recent years. She called Sunday’s early election only after three months in office, hoping to turn that around while her popularity is high.

Popular leader

The ultraconservative Takaichi, who took office as Japan’s first female leader in October, pledged to “work, work, work,” and her style, which is seen as both playful and tough, has resonated with younger fans who say they weren’t previously interested in politics.

The opposition, despite the formation of a new centrist alliance and a rising far-right, was too splintered to be a real challenger. The new opposition alliance of LDP’s former coalition partner, Buddhist-backed dovish Komeito, and the liberal-leaning Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, is projected to sink to half of their combined preelection share of 167 seats.

Takaichi was betting with this election that her LDP party, together with its new partner, the Japan Innovation Party, would secure a majority.

Akihito Iwatake, a 53-year-old office worker, said he welcomed the big win by the LDP because he felt the party went too liberal in the past few years. “With Takaichi shifting things more toward the conservative side, I think that brought this positive result,” he said.

Takaichi’s policies

The prime minister wants to push forward a significant shift to the right in Japan’s security, immigration and other policies. The LDP’s right-wing partner, JIP leader Hirofumi Yoshimura, has said his party will serve as an “accelerator” for this push.

Japan has recently seen far-right populists gain ground, such as the anti-globalist and surging nationalist party Sanseito. Exit polls projected a big gain for Sanseito.

Takaichi has pledged to revise security and defense policies by December to bolster Japan’s offensive military capabilities, lifting a ban on weapons exports and moving further away from the country’s postwar pacifist principles.

She has been pushing for tougher policies on foreigners, anti-espionage and other measures that resonate with a far-right audience, but ones that experts say could undermine civil rights.

Takaichi also wants to increase defense spending in response to US President Donald Trump’s pressure for Japan to loosen its purse strings.

She now has time to work on these policies, without an election until 2028.

Divisive policies

Though Takaichi said that she’s seeking to win support for policies seen as divisive in Japan, she largely avoided discussing ways to fund soaring military spending, how to fix diplomatic tension with China and other issues.

In her campaign speeches, Takaichi enthusiastically talked about the need for proactive government spending to fund “crisis management investment and growth,” such as measures to strengthen economic security, technology and other industries. Takaichi also seeks to push tougher measures on immigration, including stricter requirements for foreign property owners and a cap on foreign residents.

Sunday’s election “underscores a problematic trend in Japanese politics in which political survival takes priority over substantive policy outcomes,” said Masato Kamikubo, a Ritsumeikan University politics professor. “Whenever the government attempts necessary but unpopular reforms … the next election looms.”

Impact of snow

Sunday’s vote coincided with fresh snowfall across the country, including in Tokyo. Record snowfall in northern Japan over the past few weeks blocked roads and was blamed for dozens of deaths nationwide.

Published on February 8, 2026



Source link

PM Modi congratulates Japan PM Sanae Takaichi on landmark election victory

PM Modi congratulates Japan PM Sanae Takaichi on landmark election victory

by | Feb 8, 2026 | Business


Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), who has previously suffered a hand injury, speaks to the media at the LDP headquarters on general election day in Tokyo, Japan, February 8, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday greeted his Japanese counterpart Sanae Takaichi on her “landmark victory” in the elections to the House of Representatives.

Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi’s ruling coalition, led by her Liberal Democratic Party, is almost certain to win a single-party majority in the parliamentary election Sunday.

“Congratulations Sanae Takaichi on your landmark victory in the elections to the House of Representatives,” Modi said in a post on X.

The prime minister said India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership plays a vital role in enhancing global peace, stability and prosperity.

“I am confident that under your able leadership, we will continue to take the India-Japan friendship to greater heights,” Modi said.

Published on February 8, 2026



Source link

YouTube
Instagram
WhatsApp