The Indian rupee hit a record intraday low of 95.34 against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, extending a sharp decline driven by rising tensions in West Asia. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee was trading 37 paise lower at 95.25 in the afternoon session, marking one of its steepest single-session drops in recent memory. The West Asia standoff is the immediate trigger. Geopolitical flare-ups in the region typically push investors toward safe-haven assets like the dollar, which strengthens the greenback and puts pressure on emerging market currencies like the rupee. A weaker rupee raises the cost of imports priced in dollars, most critically crude oil, which India buys in large volumes from the region. Higher import costs can widen the trade deficit and push up domestic fuel and commodity prices. Watch for Reserve Bank of India intervention in the forex market to limit further depreciation, and monitor crude oil price movements, which will determine how much additional pressure builds on the rupee in coming sessions.
Indian startups raised $5.2 billion across 501 deals in H1 2026, down 9% in value but up 7% in deal count year-on-year, per the Inc42 Indian Tech Startup Funding Report. The drop is driven by fewer mega-rounds, while AI funding surged 317% and growth-stage deal activity hit a multi-year high.
The BSE Sensex fell 893 points and the Nifty 50 shed 279 points on June 30, 2026, wiping out roughly Rs 6 lakh crore in investor wealth in a single session. Both indices dropped 1.16%, closing at 76,200.68 and 23,824.10 respectively.
Kotak Mahindra Bank shares fell nearly 3% to Rs 397.6 after CEO Ashok Vaswani announced plans to exit the bank. Investor concern now centres on succession timing and whether the bank's ongoing digital and deposit-growth strategy will stay on track.
South Korea's Kospi dropped 3% at Monday's open while Japan's Nikkei fell 1%, as escalating US-Iran conflict triggered a broad risk-off move across Asian markets. South Korea's heavy reliance on Middle East oil imports makes it especially vulnerable to geopolitical shocks of this kind.
