India's foreign exchange reserves shot up by another $2.29 billion to $698.95 billion for the week ended June 13, data released by the RBI on Friday showed.

The country’s forex kitty stood at $696.66 billion in the preceding week ended on June 6, registering an increase $5.17 billion. With a close to $7.5 billion rise over the fortnight, India’s foreign exchange reserves are nearing the all-time high of $704.885 billion that was recorded at September-end last year.

The ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran has had a significant impact on India’s rice exports, with shipments to Iran coming to a near halt, rice exporters said on Friday.

Rrice exporter Narendra Miglani said: "The war between Iran and Israel is affecting Indian rice exporters."

"Due to the conflict, exports of rice routed to Iran have stopped, and nearly 1 lakh metric tonnes of rice from Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh are currently stuck at ports," he added.

Miglani said that India exports the highest quantity of basmati rice to Iran, followed by Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

He further added that the conflict has caused a drop of nearly Rs 1,200 per quintal in export rice prices.

The Indian stock markets bounced back on Friday after three straight sessions of losses, as investors took comfort from easing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

The US stated that it is still open to negotiations with Iran and will take a call on supporting Israel within two weeks. This statement helped calm investor nerves and sparked a broad-based rally across the markets.

After a strong start, both the Sensex and Nifty ended the day with solid gains. The Sensex closed at 82,408.17, up by 1,046 points or 1.29 per cent.

During the day, it had touched an intra-day high of 82,488.21. The Nifty also gained 319.95 points or 1.29 per cent to close at 25,112.4.

"The national equity indices surged as Middle East tension moderated with risk of immediate military actions reduced as US dialogue with Iran is expected to take place," said Vinod Nair of Geojit Investments Limited.

India’s economic indicators are becoming more supportive of growth, according to the report released by Motilal Oswal Private Wealth (MOPW) on Friday.

The report highlights that several positive trends are emerging on the domestic front, including higher GDP growth, easing inflation, and strong tax collections.

India’s GDP grew by 7.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of FY25, which is the highest reading in the last four quarters.

Inflation has remained below 4 per cent for four consecutive months, and GST collections have been rising steadily.

These signs indicate strong demand and stable activity in the formal sector of the economy.

The report also notes that India’s policy environment is now moving in a unified direction. Fiscal, monetary, and regulatory policies are all aimed at maintaining growth momentum.

Gold prices slipped after the US Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged and signalled a more gradual path for rate cuts, analysts said on Friday.

US Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted the central bank expects an increase in inflation in the coming months amidst tariffs and other factors, reinforcing a cautious policy stance. While markets initially responded with optimism, Powell tempered expectations by reiterating that with low and stable unemployment, the Fed is well-positioned to wait for more data before making any moves.

Though he hinted that September could be a "live" meeting, however market participants have been discounting the same since sometime. Fed still anticipates rate cuts totaling 50 basis points in 2025, but now sees only 25 basis points of easing each in 2026 and 2027.

“Powell emphasised that these forecasts are highly data-dependent, especially on inflation trends. Meanwhile, geopolitical developments added to market uncertainty, as President Donald Trump floated the idea of meeting with Iran over the Iran-Israel conflict, and Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed readiness for substantive peace talks with Ukraine,” said Manav Modi, Senior Analyst, Commodity Research at Motilal Oswal Financial services Ltd.

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal met several top UK officials and industry leaders during his visit to Britain, and discussed avenues for collaboration in financial frameworks and emerging technologies like AI.

The minister met Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer in UK, and discussed avenues for collaboration in financial frameworks, sustainable finance, and unlocking new trade opportunities to further strengthen the India-UK economic partnership.

Goyal also had an engaging discussion with Oliver Prill, CEO of Tide, a business financial platform based in the UK.

“With India's massive strides in the digital world, we discussed the fintech ecosystem, digital empowerment, and fostering SME-led growth across both economies,” the Union Minister said in a post on X social media platform.

The Indian benchmark indices opened higher on Friday amid positive Asian cues, as buying was seen in the PSU bank, IT and auto sectors in the early trade.

At around 9.25 am, Sensex was trading 228.15 points or 0.28 per cent up at 81,590.02 while the Nifty added 55.10 point or 0.22 per cent at 24,848.35

Nifty Bank was up 102.35 points or 0.18 per cent at 55,679.80 The Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 57,143.10 after dropping 16.85 points or 0.03 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 17,950.60 after declining 62.50 points or 0.35 per cent.

According to analysts, Nifty, which has been trading within the 24,500-25,000 range for about a month now, is likely to remain within this range in the near term. The upper side of the range will be broken only on news of de-escalation of the Israel-Iran conflict or an abrupt end to the war.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday released the final guidelines for project finance, giving banks relief by significantly lowering the provisioning requirements compared to what was proposed earlier.

These new norms will be applicable from October 1, 2025.

Under the final rules, banks will now have to set aside a general provision of 1.25 per cent for loans to Commercial Real Estate (CRE) projects during the construction phase.

For Commercial Real Estate – Residential Housing (CRE-RH) projects, the provision has been set at 1 per cent.

Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial in Amritsar and Maharaja Ranjit Singh Fort in Jalandhar will be among the five historical sites in Punjab and Haryana selected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to organise International Day of Yoga (IDY) events on Saturday, an official said on Thursday.

The Bathinda Fort, Shamsher Khan’s Tomb in district Gurdaspur in Punjab and Prithviraj Chauhan’s Fort in Haryana’s Hisar district will also host yoga sessions on IDY.

The Chandigarh Circle of ASI will organise yoga sessions at these five heritage monuments — four in Punjab and one in Haryana, all of which are among the 100 iconic sites identified by the Ministry of Culture for IDY 2025 celebrations, said an official statement.

The eighth edition of the Indo-French joint military exercise, Shakti-VIII, commenced at Camp Larzac in La Cavalerie on Thursday, marking yet another milestone in the growing defence partnership between India and France.

The biennial exercise aims to enhance interoperability and foster mutual understanding between the two militaries, with this year's focus on joint operations in a sub-conventional environment under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.