Talks with US ‘complicated’ by American strike on nuclear sites, says official

Iran’s top diplomat said the possibility of new negotiations with the United States on his country’s nuclear programme has been “complicated” by the American attack on three of the sites, which he conceded caused “serious damage”.

The US was one of the parties to the 2015 nuclear deal in which Iran agreed to limits on its uranium enrichment program in exchange for sanctions relief and other benefits.

That deal unravelled after US President Donald Trump pulled the US out unilaterally during his first term. Trump has suggested he is interested in new talks with Iran and said the two sides would meet next week.

In an interview on Iranian state television broadcast late Thursday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left open the possibility that his country would again enter talks on its nuclear program, but suggested it would not be anytime soon.

“No agreement has been made for resuming the negotiations,” he said. “No time has been set, no promise has been made, and we haven’t even talked about restarting the talks.” The American decision to intervene militarily “made it more complicated and more difficult” for talks on Iran’s nuclear program, Araghchi said.

BEIJING (Bloomberg/Reuters): China has removed a top general from the nation’s apex military body led by President Xi Jinping, as the defence establishment is facing a wave of purges.

Admiral Miao Hua, 69, who oversees political loyalty in the armed forces, has been ousted from the national Central Military Commission (CMC), according to a statement from the National People’s Congress Standing Committee.

The six-man commission is the armed force’s premier decision-making body and one of the most powerful institutions in China.

Under Xi, there are two vice-chairmen serving as military leaders and three other members that included Adm Miao, who is seen as a close ally of the country’s top leader.

Adm Miao’s photo was removed from the senior leadership page of the Defence Ministry’s website.

“The Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission held a military representative conference on March 14 this year and decided to remove Miao Hua from his position as a representative of the 14th National People’s Congress,” a statement from state news agency Xinhua said.

The statement did not contain any other details, but the move marks another stage in Xi’s ongoing anti-corruption purge of China’s military.

Xi’s government has unseated more than a dozen senior military figures since launching a corruption investigation last summer into hardware purchases going back to 2017.

That probe resulted in the removal of China’s last two defence ministers from the Communist Party, as well as the ouster of several officials with ties to the secretive Rocket Force that oversees the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

Adm Miao was suspended from the CMC in 2024 as he was under investigation for “serious violations of discipline”. For the ruling Communist Party, that language typically refers to a graft probe.

In April, Adm Miao was expelled from Parliament without explanation.

Adm Miao was stationed in the coastal province of Fujian when Xi worked there as a local official, according to his official biography. Xi personally elevated Adm Miao to the CMC.

Another CMC member and China’s second-ranking general, General He Weidong, has not been seen in public since the March 11 closing ceremony of the annual parliamentary sessions in Beijing.

Since then, he has not appeared at a series of high-level Politburo and military public engagements.

He is the third-most powerful commander of the People’s Liberation Army and is considered a close associate of Xi. The Defence Ministry said in March it was “unaware” of reports he had been detained. His photo remains on the ministry’s website.

In 2024, the Defence Ministry denied reports that Defence Minister Dong Jun was being probed on suspicion of corruption.

Dong has continued to appear at public events, attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation defence ministers’ meeting in Qingdao this week. BLOOMBERG, REUTERS

Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities:

Today, the benchmark indices bounce back sharply, the Nifty ends 218 points higher while the Sensex was up by 694 points. Among Sectors, almost all the major sectoral indices bounce back sharply but Metal index outperformed, rallied over 1.35 percent.

Technically, after intraday dip, one more time market took the support near 23850/78300 and reversed. Post reversal it not only cleared 24000/78800 resistance mark but it succeeds to close above the same which is largely positive. In addition, it also formed bullish candle on daily charts, which supports further uptrend from the current levels.

For the traders now, 24000/78800 would act as a sacrosanct support level. Above the same, the pullback formation is likely to continue. On the higher side, it could move up till 24400-24500/80000-80300. On the flip side, below 24000/78800 traders may prefer to exit out from the trading long positions.

Nagaraj Shetti, Senior Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities

After showing a sustainable upmove in the last few weeks, Nifty witnessed sharp profit booking on Monday and closed the day lower by 368 points. After opening with a downside gap of 110 points, Nifty slipped into further weakness in the early to mid-part of the session. There was no significant upside recovery for the day and Nifty closed near the lows. The opening downside gap remains unfilled.

A long bear candle was formed on the daily chart with gap down opening. Technically, this chart pattern is indicating a bearish reversal type candle pattern (type of bearish evening star-not a classical one). This market action is also signaling a short term top reversal action for the Nifty and expect some more weakness in the coming sessions.

Bullish higher tops and bottoms is intact on Nifty as per daily timeframe chart. Present weakness could be in line with the new higher bottom of the sequence. We expect Nifty to find support around 25500-25400 and the market is likely to bounce back from the lows. Immediate resistance to be watched at 26000 levels.