Indian Shares Edge Higher Despite Uncertainty Over Qatar Diplomacy

(RTTNews) - Indian shares opened on a positive note on Wednesday as oil prices remained subdued despite uncertainty surrounding ongoing U.S.-Iran negotiations in Doha.

Iranian Parliament Speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Iran will not enter negotiations with the United States on a final agreement unless five preliminary paragraphs of a recently signed pace memorandum of understanding are fulfilled.

These include provisions for ending the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, lifting the U.S. naval blockade, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, issuing U.S. waivers for Iranian crude oil exports, and releasing frozen Iranian assets, according to Xinhua news agency.

He also claimed that Israel is desperately trying to destroy a new 14-point MoU between Tehran and Washington.

The benchmark BSE Sensex was up 349 points, or half a percent, at 76,827 in early trade while the broader NSE Nifty index edged up by 129 points, or half a percent, to 23,994.

Among the top gainers, Asian Paints, Adani Ports, Eternal, UltraTech Cement, Titan Company, Maruti Suzuki India, Hindustan Unilever and Mahindra & Mahindra were up 2-3 percent.

Hexaware Technologies jumped 5 percent after launching Tensai for Reasoning Ops, an Agentic AI platform for IT operations.

Kotak Mahindra Bank rose about half a percent after it signed a definitive agreement to acquire Deutsche Bank' retail and wealth units in India for around Rs. 282 crore ($29.79 million).

RailTel Corporation of India soared 4.5 percent on securing a Rs. 107.6 crore work order from Mahanadi Coalfields.

KPIT Technologies plummeted 14 percent after flagging weaker-than-expected performance in the first quarter of FY27.

HDFC Life Insurance dropped about 1 percent. The company has received the GST appellate order confirming a GST tax demand, along with interest and penalty, totaling Rs. 132.7 crore.

Paras Defence and Space Technologies fell about 2 percent after it signed an exclusive licensing pact with Tandem Defense LLC for the Guardian-1 Interceptor technology.