India shares fall as US-China trade deal uncertainty, Middle East tensions weigh

(Updates for morning trade)
India's benchmark indexes edged lower on Thursday, led by losses in IT stocks, as ambiguity over the U.S.-China trade deal and rising tensions in the Middle East dampened risk appetite.
The Nifty 50 was down 0.16% at 25,101.3 and the BSE Sensex fell 0.2% to 82,355.26, as of 10:13 a.m. IST.
The broader small-caps and mid-caps both fell about 0.3%. Eleven of the 13 major sectors logged losses.
Other Asian markets were also muted, while Wall Street equities fell overnight on fresh geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and a lack of detail in a U.S.-China trade deal.
U.S. President Donald Trump said a framework on tariff rates had been reached to revive the fragile trade truce with China. While this lifted investor hopes, the lack of specifics kept markets on edge.
"The tariff crisis is not over yet. With Trump's credibility being what it is, it would be too early to discount the development as a positive for markets," said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments.
Meanwhile, geopolitical concerns heightened after Iran said it will strike U.S. bases in the Middle East if nuclear talks fail and conflict arises with Washington.
Escalating security risks in the Middle East is a negative for India as it could trigger a rise in Brent crude prices, said two analysts.
Heavyweight IT fell 1%. Indian IT companies earn a significant share of their revenue from the United States.
Among individual stocks, Paytm fell 8.4% after India's finance ministry
reports claiming the introduction of merchant discount rate (MDR) on UPI transactions.
Delay or non-introduction of MDR is sentiment negative for Paytm and could present a downside risk to the company's core profitability in fiscal 2026 and 2027, UBS said in a note.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Eileen Soreng)

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