Oil prices rise to 6-month high as Trump puts time limit on Iran stand-off

Oil prices rise to 6-month high as Trump puts time limit on Iran stand-off



Oil prices were higher on Friday as concern of conflict between the US and Iran ratcheted up, with ​Washington saying Tehran will suffer if it does not ​agree a deal about its nuclear activity within a matter of ‌days.


Brent crude futures rose 21 cents, or 0.3 per cent, to $71.87, while US West Texas Intermediate crude gained 23 cents, or 0.4 per cent to $66.66.


Prices settled at their highest in six months on Thursday after US President Trump said “really bad things” would happen if Iran does not come to an agreement regarding a nuclear program it has said is peaceful but that the US believes is militaristic. Trump set a deadline of 10 to 15 days.

 


Iran, meanwhile, has planned a joint naval exercise with Russia, ‌a local news agency reported, days after temporarily closing the Strait of Hormuz for military drills.


The major oil producer lies opposite the oil-rich Arabian Peninsula across the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 per cent of global oil supply passes. Conflict in the area could limit oil supplies entering the global market and push up prices.


Also supporting oil prices were reports of falling ​crude oil stocks and limited exports in the world’s biggest oil producing and exporting countries.


US ‌crude inventories dropped by 9 million barrels, as refining utilisation and exports climbed, showed an Energy Information Administration report on Thursday.


Oil exports ​from Saudi ‌Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, fell to 6.988 million barrels per day ‌in December, the lowest since September, showed data from the Joint Organizations Data Initiative.


Elsewhere, Japan’s annual core consumer inflation rate hit 2.0 per cent in January, ‌the ​slowest in two ​years, potentially dragging on any central bank plan to raise its policy interest rate.


Low interest rates in oil-importing countries such as ‌Japan are typically ​seen as supportive for crude prices.



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RailTel Corporation of India order worth Rs 36 crore

RailTel Corporation of India order worth Rs 36 crore


RailTel Corporation of India has received a work order worth Rs 35.54 crore from Dy. CSTE/P/CNB, North Central Railway (NCR).

The order pertains to the provision of MSDAC and other associated works, including suitable indoor alterations in EI/RRI/PI stations in the Prayagraj Division of NCR. The project is to be executed within 24 months from the date of the letter of acceptance (LoA) and is scheduled to be completed by 17 February 2028.

The contract has been awarded by a domestic entity and does not fall under related party transactions. The company confirmed that neither the promoter nor the promoter group has any interest in the awarding entity.

 

RailTel was incorporated in 2000, with the objective of creating nationwide broadband and VPN services, telecom, and multimedia networks to modernize the train control operation and safety system of Indian Railways.

The companys standalone net profit declined 4.07% to Rs 62.40 crore in Q3 FY26, compared with Rs 65.05 crore in Q3 FY25. However, revenue from operations rose 18.99% YoY to Rs 913.45 crore in Q3 FY26.

Shares of RailTel Corporation of India slipped 1.35% to end at Rs 329 on the BSE.

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First Published: Feb 19 2026 | 4:52 PM IST



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RailTel Corporation of India order worth Rs 36 crore

Sensex settles 1,236 pts lower; Nifty ends below 25,500 level


The key domestic indices ended with sharp losses, snapping a three-session winning streak, as a surge in crude oil prices, mixed signals from the Fed, and profit booking across sectors weighed on sentiment. The Nifty ended below the 25,500 level. All sectoral indices on the NSE ended in the red, led by losses in realty, media and auto stocks.

As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, tanked 1,236.11 points or 1.48% to 82,498.14. The Nifty 50 index fell 365 points or 1.41%, to 25,454.35.

In the broader market, the BSE 150 MidCap Index slipped 1.54% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index fell 1.16%.

 

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,273 shares rose and 2,930 shares fell. A total of 164 shares were unchanged.

The NSE’s India VIX, a gauge of the market’s expectation of volatility over the near term, surged 10.12% to 13.46.

India AI Impact Summit 2026

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the MANAV Vision for AI, where MANAV stands for M Moral and Ethical System, A Accountable Governance, N National Sovereignty (right to data), A Accessible and Inclusive, and V Valid and Legitimate.

Apart from PM Modi, key business and technology leaders such as Mukesh Ambani, Sam Altman and Sundar Pichai also delivered keynote addresses. French President Emmanuel Macron also spoke at the Delhi AI Summit.

Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran said, I would like to thank the vision of our Prime Minister, which has enabled us to make a serious foray into chips and semiconductors. Our next step is to build chips that are highly domain-centric and fully AI-optimized for every industry. We will initially focus on developing and launching them for the automotive sector.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Realty index declined 2.56% to 817.85. The index rose 0.62% in the past trading session.

Lodha Developers (down 4.1%), Godrej Properties (down 4%), DLF (down 3.7%), Prestige Estates Projects (down 2.69%), SignatureGlobal India (down 2.5%), Oberoi Realty (down 2.42%), Anant Raj (down 2.4%), Phoenix Mills (down 1.82%), and Brigade Enterprises (down 0.03%) surged.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) gained 1.04% after the exchange announced the withdrawal of additional margins imposed on gold and silver futures contracts with effect from 19 February 2026.

TIL jumped 9.22% after the companys board will meet on 23 February 2026, to consider raising funds via different routes. The company will raise capital by way of a rights issue, preferential allotment, qualified institutional placement, or any other permissible mode and/or combination thereof, through the issuance of equity shares, equity-linked securities, warrants, and/or any other eligible securities.

Tata Consultancy Services advanced 0.65%. The company announced a multi-dimensional strategic partnership with OpenAI to drive AI-powered innovation across enterprise, consumer, and social sectors.

Spicejet shed 0.59%. The company said it has received a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the induction of 10 aircraft, marking a fresh step in its capacity expansion and network rebuilding plans.

ITCONS E-Solutions added 1.01% after it secured a domestic contract from Uranium Corporation of India (UCIL), which operates under the Department of Atomic Energy, PMO.

Pine Labs advanced 2.91% after the company announced collaboration with OpenAI, marking its move beyond traditional automation to build agentic commerce.

B. L. Kashyap and Sons rose 0.24%. The company said that it secured a contract worth Rs 300 crore from CRC Greens for a group housing project in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL) fell 1.40%. The company received a letter of acceptance (LoA) from Northern Railway for a project worth Rs 1,201.35 crore.

Dhabriya Polywood zoomed 2.98% after it announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Dynasty Modular Furnitures, had received letters of intent (LOIs) from the Godrej Group aggregating to Rs 25.30 crore.

Atishay fell 2.09%. The company said that it has secured a domestic work order from the State Health Assurance Society (SHAS), Government of Maharashtra.

Hemant Surgical Industries fell 3.99%. The company announced that it has received an order worth Rs 264.33 crore from the Central Medical Services Society (CMSS), under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

R P P Infra Projects rose 3.07% after the company received a letter of acceptance (LoA) worth Rs 52.17 crore from the Water Resources Department, Tamil Nadu. The contract has been awarded by the Superintending Engineer, Palar Basin Circle, Chepauk, Chennai. According to the companys exchange filing, the scope of work includes the formation of new tanks, construction of peripheral earthen drains, cut-and-cover channels, and capacity enhancement of surrounding tanks. The project also involves flood mitigation works for the proposed Global Sports City at Semmancheri, Chennai.

GNG Electronics fell 1.38%. The company announced the signing of strategic distribution partnerships with Ingram Micro India and Supertron Electronics for the nationwide distribution of its refurbished computers across India.

Global Markets:

European markets traded lower on Thursday as investors assessed the minutes of the US Federal Reserves January meeting which revealed divisions within the committee over the future policy trajectory. While some members signalled openness to rate cuts if inflation continues to moderate, others indicated a willingness to tighten policy further if price pressures remain persistent.

Most Asian stocks ended higher, supported by gains in technology giants on Wall Street, while lingering U.S.-Iran tensions kept oil prices elevated.

In Malaysia, headline inflation rose 1.6% year-on-year in January 2026, with the consumer price index (CPI) increasing to 135.7 from 133.6 in the same month last year, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

Hong Kong and mainland China markets remained closed for the Lunar New Year break.

Meanwhile, Indonesian and U.S. companies signed deals worth $38.4 billion ahead of Indonesian President Prabowo Subiantos meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, covering mining, energy, agribusiness, textiles, furniture, and technology sectors.

In Australia, the unemployment rate steadied at 4.1% in January, as per data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Oil prices edged higher as investors digested the latest developments between the U.S. and Iran. Vice President JD Vance reportedly said Tuesday that Iran failed to address U.S. red lines in this weeks nuclear talks and that military action is still a possibility.

Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 moved higher, supported by gains in key technology names, as traders weighed the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserves most recent policy meeting.

The broad-based index climbed 0.56% to end at 6,881.31, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.78% to settle at 22,753.63. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.26% to close at 49,662.66.

Investors mulled over the minutes from the Feds January meeting, which revealed that participants largely approved of the central banks decision to leave its key interest rate unchanged at a range of 3.5% to 3.75%. However, officials were divided on the direction of monetary policy thereafter.

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Bitcoin to hit  mn? Eric Trump stays optimistic despite crypto turmoil

Bitcoin to hit $1 mn? Eric Trump stays optimistic despite crypto turmoil



Amidst the ongoing rout in the crypto world, Eric Trump, co-founder of World Liberty Financial and son of US President Donald Trump, remains bullish on cryptocurrency, calling it the “asset class of this generation.”

 


In a recent interview with CNBC, Eric expressed his strong belief in Bitcoin, predicting that the digital asset could hit $1 million, while calling it one of the greatest performing asset classes.

 


“We still are, I’m a huge proponent of Bitcoin. I do think it hits a million dollars. I think it’s one of the greatest performing asset classes. I mean, go back two years, Bitcoin was at $16,000, you know, where is it at right now? around $70,000?” Eric said.

 
 


Notably, the crypto markets have been under pressure for the past six months. Bitcoin, which scaled its all-time peak of $126,198 in October 2025, has fallen sharply, slipping near $70,000. At last check, BTC was trading at $67,202, down 1 per cent with a 24-hour trading volume of $33.33 billion. Though it continues to remain the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, the Bitcoin total market cap has also fallen below the $2 trillion mark to $1.34 trillion, showed the CoinMarketCap data. 

 


Commenting on the ongoing volatility in Bitcoin, Eric acknowledged the sharp price swings but remained optimistic about its long-term potential.

 


“I mean, if you look at the last 10 years, Bitcoin has gone up 70 per cent a year on average. Year over year for the last decade—name an asset class that has performed better than Bitcoin. And now, obviously, you have lots of volatility,” Eric said.

 

He, however, suggested that investors seeking less volatility may want to explore alternative options.   

 


“If you do not want volatility, you know, go invest in some Munis, go have a great time, go invest in some Treasury. You are going to have volatility with something that has tremendous upside, but I have never been more bullish on Bitcoin in my life. I have never been more bullish on a cryptocurrency in my life,” he added.

 


Commenting on the wider adoption of cryptocurrencies, Eric pointed out that virtually all major financial institutions in the US are now involved in crypto. “Whether it be Fidelity, whether it be Charles Schwab, whether it be JP Morgan, whether it be Goldman Sachs—go down the list, every single one of them are adopting cryptocurrencies,” he said.

 


Eric noted that these institutions, which were once hesitant to embrace crypto, are now actively putting their private wealth clients into cryptocurrency. “They are willing to Treasury cryptocurrencies, they are putting their private wealth clients into cryptocurrencies before they were telling them to put exactly zero into cryptocurrency. Then it was 2 per cent, now all of a sudden it’s 5-6 per cent, and that number keeps on climbing,” he said.


Michael Saylor: Volatility in Bitcoin is its vitality

Michael Saylor, an American entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and Executive Chairman of MicroStrategy Inc., a business-intelligence software company that also holds one of the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin reserves, earlier in November 2025, had said that volatility is the “vitality” of Bitcoin, arguing that the sharp price swings are essential to its long-term performance and the opportunities they create for investors. 

 


This comment came when Bitcoin had fallen over 31 per cent from its October 2025 peak to the $86,800 level.

 


Taking his point further, Saylor, during an interview with CoinDCX, had said that in a world where Bitcoin offered steady, predictable returns, “Warren Buffett would own all of it and there wouldn’t be an opportunity for us.”





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RailTel Corporation of India order worth Rs 36 crore

Yen holds near 155 as fed hawkishness boosts dollar


The Japanese yen hovered near 155.15 per dollar on Thursday after logging its sharpest one-day drop of the month, pressured by a stronger US dollar following solid economic data and hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve. Fed minutes showed several officials favored keeping the option of further rate hikes on the table if inflation remains elevated. Domestically, Japans December machinery orders rebounded strongly, offering limited support to the currency. Markets are also increasingly pricing in a potential April rate hike by the Bank of Japan, contingent on upcoming data.

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First Published: Feb 19 2026 | 1:16 PM IST



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