ET NEWS

Turkey's top diplomat said Friday that Ankara had closed its ports and airspace to Israeli ships and planes, with a diplomatic source telling AFP the ban applied to "official" flights. Ties between Turkey and Israel have been shattered by Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, with Ankara accusing Israel of committing "genocide" in the tiny Palestinian territory -- a term roundly rejected by Israel -- and suspending all trade ties in May last year. "We have closed our ports to Israeli ships. We do not allow Turkish ships to go to Israeli ports.... We do not allow container ships carrying weapons and ammunition to Israel to enter our ports, nor do we allow their aircraft to enter our airspace," Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told lawmakers in a televised address. Asked for clarification about the minister's remarks, a Turkish diplomatic source said its airspace was "closed to all aircraft carrying weapons (to Israel) and to Israel's official flights". It was not immediately clear when the airspace restrictions were put in place. In November, Turkey refused to let the Israeli president's plane cross its airspace, forcing him to cancel a planned visit to the COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan.And in May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a visit to Baku after Ankara reportedly refused overflight rights.Trade cut off On Monday ZIM, Israel's biggest shipping firm, said it had been informed that under new regulations passed by Ankara on August 22, "vessels that are either owned, managed or operated by an entity related to Israel will not be permitted to berth in Turkish ports".The information was made public in a filing to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in which ZIM warned the new regulation was expected to "negatively impact on the company's financial and operational results".The ban also extended to other ships carrying military cargo destined for Israel, it said. "Separately.. vessels that are carrying military cargo destined to Israel will not be permitted to berth in Turkish ports; in addition, Turkish-flagged vessels will be prohibited from berthing in Israeli ports." Fidan's remarks were the first public acknowledgement of the ban. "No other country has cut off trade with Israel," he told Turkish lawmakers at an emergency session on the Gaza crisis. Turkish officials have repeatedly insisted that all trade ties with Israel have been cut, vowing there would be no normalisation as long as the Gaza war continues. But some Turkish opposition figures have accused Ankara of allowing trade to continue, notably by allowing oil shipments from Azerbaijan to pass through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline running through Turkey -- claims dismissed by Turkey's energy ministry as "completely unfounded".Although Azerbaijan has long been one of Israel's main oil suppliers, data published on its state customs website this year no longer showed Israel as one of the countries that purchase oil from Baku, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported earlier this year.

At least 22 people died in the last 24 hours as several residential areas of Lahore remained submerged due to floodwaters entering the city, the first time in almost 40 years, in Pakistan's Punjab province, authorities said on Friday. Pakistan's most populous province, Punjab has been reeling under severe floods for almost a week and at least 1,700 villages across the province, including the Sikh sacred site of Kartarpur, are inundated. "Flood water has entered Lahore after 38 years. After the 1988 floods, the water flow measuring 2,20,000 in the Ravi at 7 am today is so far the highest one," Lahore Deputy Commissioner Syed Musa Raza told journalists. The government said the unprecedented monsoon rain and the release of excess water from the Indian side swelled the three eastern rivers -- the Sutlej, Ravi and Chenab. Northwest India and Pakistan's Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces have been witnessing torrential rains for over 10 days resulting in almost all rivers and tributaries flowing over danger levels. "If there is no discharge of water from India downstream, we can expect a reduction in the flows in the next 2-3 days," he said. "At least 1,700 villages across Punjab have been inundated this week while standing crops on thousands of acres have been destroyed in the devastating floods," the Punjab government said in a statement. The rescue teams of various administrative departments, as well as the Pakistan army, have evacuated over one million people so far. "Extremely high floods in eastern rivers have also resulted in the loss of 22 lives in 24 hours," the statement added. On Friday, floodwaters entered Lahore, situated on the banks of Ravi, and inundated 13 residential localities, damaging roads, houses and other infrastructure, officials said. Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz visited the Ravi banks and noted that "the province's early warning system was functioning effectively, allowing the timely evacuation of residents." The worsening flood situation overnight prompted the Punjab administration to call in the Pakistan Army in eight districts -- Lahore, Okara, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Narowal, Kasur, Sargodha and Hafizabad -- of Punjab province to assist civil authorities in rescue and relief operations, officials said earlier. Earlier on Sunday, India communicated flood warnings to Pakistan through diplomatic channels on "humanitarian grounds." Punjab - literally the land of five rivers - is drained by Sutlej, Ravi, Chenab, jhelum and Beas, all into peak monsoon flows, and all flowing into Pakistan from India. Due to flooding in the Chenab, more than one million people have been evacuated and relocated to safe locations over eight days, as per the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). In the Ravi basin, almost 80 villages were submerged and around 11,000 people have been evacuated and relocated to safe locations. A total of 361 villages have been submerged by the overflowing Sutlej river and nearly 1,27,000 people have been evacuated and relocated to safe locations in the same duration. Meanwhile, Pakistan army chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir on Friday said Sikh religious sites, including Darbar Sahib Kartarpur, hit by the massive floods would be restored to their original shape.

Even as market regulator Sebi pushes to deepen cash markets and curb excessive speculation in the futures & options (F&O) segment, July data reveals that the combined Average Daily Turnover (ADT) of the BSE and NSE slipped 32% year-on-year to Rs 1.02 lakh crore.The turnover in the equity cash segment saw a decline of 0.9% at BSE and 8.3% at the NSE, Sebi bulletin revealed.The dip in average turnover could be attributed to the ongoing worries around Trump tariffs and weak Q1 earnings. Nifty fell nearly 3% in July.Turnover in the equity cash segment saw a moderate rise of 5.4% in June at the BSE and 2.1% at NSE while the combined ADT at BSE and NSE for June 2025 was Rs 1.2 lakh crore, a 26.4% less than the ADT during June 2024.Snapping the market rally that started in March and extended through June, the Indian equity markets witnessed correction in July amid tariff-related uncertainties, subdued corporate earnings and foreign capital flight.The correction was broad-based with Nifty Smallcap 100 and Midcap 50 indices declining by 5.8% and 3.8%, respectively.Among the sectoral indices, barring pharma and FMCG indices, all sectoral indices ended in negative territory in July. During the month, Nifty Pharma advanced by 3.3%, followed by Nifty Healthcare (2.9%) and Nifty FMCG (1.7%). Nifty IT witnessed the highest decline (9.4%), followed by Nifty Realty (7.5%) and Nifty Media (7.3%). Nifty Realty and Nifty Media continued to exhibit highest annualised volatility among the sectors.Futures & Options (F&O)The notional options turnover increased significantly at both NSE and BSE by 16% and 30% respectively, as compared to previous month, whereas the premium option turnover decreased marginally by 3% and 2% for NSE and BSE respectively. In the futures segment, the July turnover went down by 40% at BSE while declining 5% for the NSE.India’s capital markets regulator remains committed to deepening the cash equities market, chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey had said on Thursday. Sebi is considering extending the tenure and maturity of equity derivatives contracts in a phased manner, chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said on Thursday. Speaking at a FICCI event, Pandey underlined the regulator’s commitment to deepening the cash equities market, calling it the “true foundation of capital formation.” He acknowledged the derivatives segment’s role in driving market growth but stressed the need for quality, balance, and sustainable development in the overall market structure.Read more: Sebi plans to increase tenure, maturity of equity derivatives(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)

Analysts at J.P. Morgan are staying bullish on Nvidia, boosting their target price to $215 even as the world’s most valuable company offered a forecast that underwhelmed investors, saying the chipmaker’s expanding AI infrastructure pipeline and product ramps leave “multiple levers at play to drive upside.”Nvidia Corp. delivered record revenue in the second quarter, topping Wall Street estimates, but its stock fell 3% in after-hours U.S. trading and slid nearly 3% in Frankfurt Thursday. The pullback reflected concerns that the company’s guidance, though ahead of consensus, may not be strong enough to sustain the meteoric rally that has added $2 trillion to its market value since April.However, J.P. Morgan reiterated its "Overweight" rating on Nvidia, raising its price target to $215 from $170 previously, citing robust demand drivers across data-center, networking and future product ramps.“We see a sufficient ramp in the supply chain for Blackwell/Blackwell Ultra rack volumes to comfortably support the incremental ~$5B of compute revenue implied by Nvidia’s guide,” the J.P. Morgan analysts said. They noted that networking revenue jumped 46% sequentially in the quarter, while Blackwell GPU compute revenue grew by 11-12%.J.P. Morgan also flagged upside from the company’s H20 chips, estimating potential revenue of $2 billion to $5 billion in the third quarter, should U.S. export restrictions ease further.The chipmaker reported July-quarter revenue of $46.7 billion, surpassing analyst expectations of $46.05 billion. Net income surged 59% year-over-year to $26.4 billion, or $1.05 a share, topping consensus of $1.01. Nvidia forecast October-quarter revenue of about $54 billion, plus or minus 2%, ahead of Wall Street’s $53.1 billion view.J.P. Morgan ups earnings forecastsOn the back of Nvidia’s results, the brokerage raised its adjusted earnings-per-share forecast for fiscal 2026 to $4.53 from $4.27 and for fiscal 2027 to $6.63 from $5.39.The analysts projected that Nvidia’s 12-month forward order book continues to outstrip supply, underpinned by an AI infrastructure build-out that shows little sign of slowing. They also highlighted networking as a standout, with revenue up roughly 140% in the past two quarters.Market risks aheadDespite the optimism, J.P. Morgan cautioned that risks remain. Any slowdown in PC gaming demand, geopolitical disruptions affecting Chinese sales, or reduced hyperscaler adoption of GPU-accelerated computing could weigh on Nvidia’s revenue trajectory.Still, the brokerage sees Nvidia well positioned. “All in, the playbook remains the same here for NVDA – a solid beat and raise with multiple levers at play to drive upside, against the backdrop of a multi-year runway of growth for AI infrastructure spending,” J.P. Morgan said.Also read | Explained: Nvidia Q2 results beat estimates. So why did the stock fall?(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)