The Indian stock market witnessed renewed buying in Friday’s trade, 12 June, on hopes that the US and Iran are close to a peace deal that could end the three-month-long conflict, which has pushed crude oil prices to multi-week lows.
As buying emerged across sectors, the Nifty 50 closed the session with a solid 2% gain, marking its biggest single-day surge in 2026. The rally also turned the index’s weekly return positive at 1.14%.
The Sensex posted a similar 2.3% gain, ending at the 75,516 level and finishing the week higher by 1.50%. The broader markets delivered even stronger gains, with the Nifty Smallcap 100 and Nifty Midcap 100 indices advancing 2.8% and 2.4%, respectively.
The four-day tensions in the Middle East eased after US President Donald Trump said a peace deal with Iran could be signed as early as this weekend, while calling off previously announced strikes on the country. He also stated that Iran’s Supreme Leader had agreed to a deal, although he cautioned that the pact had not yet been finalized.
Trump had earlier threatened to attack Iran again and seize its oil infrastructure before announcing that the strikes were off and that a deal was close. Iran, however, said no final conclusion on an agreement has been reached and that the matter remains under review.
The US President has previously insisted dozens of times that an agreement with Iran was within reach, but none of those predictions has materialized so far. In the commodity market, both Brent crude and WTI crude fell sharply by as much as 5% as hopes of peace gained momentum.
Auto, OMC and PSU bank stocks lead market rally as crude prices tumble
There was strong buying across auto stocks amid a sharp decline in crude oil prices. The rally was led by Ashok Leyland, which surged 10% to ₹152.2 apiece, while Tube Investments of India jumped 5.3% to ₹3,133 apiece.
Bosch, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki India, and Eicher Motors all gained over 2%. The fall in crude oil prices also triggered a rally in oil marketing companies, with HPCL jumping 7%, while peers IOCL and BPCL also surged more than 5%.
Meanwhile, oil-sensitive stocks such as Indigo Paints and Asian Paints closed 4% and 2% higher, respectively. PSU banking stocks also emerged among the top performers, with nine constituents of the Nifty PSU Bank index, including Bank of Maharashtra, UCO Bank, and Union Bank of India, advancing between 2% and 5%.
Among defence stocks, MTAR Technologies closed with a strong 14% surge, marking its biggest single-day gain on record. Paras Defence and Space Technologies, Nibe, Data Patterns, Apollo Micro Systems, DCX Systems, Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers, Zen Technologies, and Bharat Dynamics also rallied between 3.5% and 11.4%.
Real estate was another clear winner, with all 10 constituents of the Nifty Realty index ending in the green. The gains were led by Prestige Estates Projects, Brigade Enterprises, Godrej Properties, DLF, Sobha, and Anant Raj, which advanced between 4.2% and 5%.
Nestle India, Oil India among key losers
Despite the broad-based buying, some stocks failed to participate in the rally, with Cemindia Projects emerging as one of the top laggards, falling 4.2% to ₹1,126 apiece. It was followed by Nestle India and Oil India, which declined 3.2% and 2.5%, respectively.
Other stocks that came under selling pressure included Premier Energies, ONGC, Tech Mahindra, Gland Pharma, Ipca Laboratories, Coforge, Balrampur Chini Mills, and Lenskart Solutions, all of which fell more than 2% during the session.
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