Mumbai, June 23: The Indian benchmark indices opened in the red on Monday amid weak global cues due to rising Middle East tensions, as selling was seen in the IT and auto sectors in the early trade.

At around 9.30 am, Sensex was trading 677.10 points or 0.82 per cent down at 81,731.07 while the Nifty declined 204.6 point or 0.81 per cent at 24,907.75

Nifty Bank was down 387.75 points or 0.69 per cent at 55,865.10 The Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 57,776.05 after dropping 219.45 points or 0.38 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 18,148.95 after declining 45.25 points or 0.25 per cent.

According to analysts, even though the US bombing of Iran’s three nuclear facilities has worsened the crisis, the impact on the market is likely to be limited. The uncertain factor now is the timing and nature of the Iranian response.

“If Iran targets and damages the US defence facilities in the region or hurts US military personnel seriously, the US response can be huge and this might further worsen the crisis. But the market assessment is that there are limits to what Iran can do against US and Israel,” said Dr VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Ltd.

The fact is that the closure of Hormuz Strait will harm Iran and Iran’s friend China more than anyone else. The market construct continues to favour a ‘buy on dips’ strategy, he added.

Meanwhile, in the Sensex pack, Infosys, HCL Tech, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Eternal, TCS, Asian Paints, Power Grid, Reliance, ITC were the top losers. Whereas, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Bharti Airtel and Trent were in the list of top gainers.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) extended their buying on the fourth consecutive day on June 20 as they bought equities worth Rs 7,940.70 crore. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold equities of Rs 3,049.88 crore on the same day.

“We expect our markets to respond unfavourably and open lower before attempting to recover from these initial losses. Immediate resistance is now placed at 25,222 levels. Support has shifted upwards to 24,800 levels,” said Devarsh Vakil, Head of Prime Research at HDFC Securities.

In the Asian markets, Bangkok, Japan, Seoul, Hong Kong and Jakarta were trading in red, while only China was trading in green.

In the last trading session on Friday, Dow Jones in the US closed at 42,206.82, up 35.16 points, or 0.08 per cent. The S&P 500 ended with a loss of 13.03 points, or 0.22 per cent, at 5,967.84 and the Nasdaq closed at 19,447.41, down 98.86 points, or 0.51 per cent.

New Delhi, June 23: The counting of votes is underway for the by-elections to five Assembly seats in four states — Gujarat, Punjab, Kerala and Bengal.

The bypolls were held on June 19 for two Assembly seats in Gujarat — Visavadar and Kadi; and one each in Punjab (Ludhiana West), Bengal (Kaliganj), and Kerala (Nilambur).

In Gujarat, the Visavadar seat recorded 56.89 per cent voter turnout; in Kadi, the turnout was 57.90 per cent.

Kerala’s Nilambur registered a 75.27 per cent voter turnout in the bypoll.

West Bengal recorded 69.85 per cent voting percentage in the Kaliganj seat, and in Punjab’s Ludhiana West constituency, 51.33 per cent voters turned up.

The deaths of the incumbent legislators necessitated the bypolls in one seat each in Gujarat, West Bengal and Punjab, and the resignation of two MLAs led to the polling in Kerala and another seat in Gujarat.

In Gujarat’s Kadi, the BJP has fielded Rajendra Chavda, Congress has Ramesh Chavda, a former MLA from the same seat, and AAP has fielded Jagdish Chavda.

In Visavadar, the BJP nominated former Junagadh district president Kirit Patel against AAP’s Gopal Italia and Congress’ Nitin Ranpariya.

The key contenders in West Bengal’s Kaliganj are Congress candidate Kabil Uddin Sheikh, backed by the Left Front, Trinamool Congress’ Alifa Ahmed, and BJP’s Ashish Ghosh.

In Kerala, the ruling LDF nominated M. Swaraj for Nilambur bypolls, whereas Aryadan Shoukath (Congress-led UDF), Trinamool Congress’ P.V. Anvar, and Mohan George of the BJP-led NDA are the other candidates in the fray. In total, ten candidates are in the fray. The contest is seen as a litmus test for the ruling LDF government and its prospects in next year’s Assembly elections.

Ludhiana West bypoll has a four-cornered battle among Sanjeev Arora from the AAP, Bharat Bhushan Ashu from Congress, Jiwan Gupta from the BJP and Parupkar Singh Ghumman from Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

Arora is AAP’s Rajya Sabha candidate, and it is being speculated that Arvind Kejriwal may be nominated for the upper House in case Arora wins. Though the AAP leaders have so far denied this move. The counting of votes for the Ludhiana West Assembly is being held at Khalsa College For Women.

Mumbai, June 23: Amid ongoing controversy over the Maharashtra government’s policy on the inclusion of Hindi “generally” as the third language in the curriculum in Marathi and English schools from Classes 1 to 5 from the academic year 2025-26, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has convened a meeting on Monday to discuss the issue and review its implementation.

The government issued a revised government resolution (GR) last week, which skipped the word “mandatory” third language as Hindi but said Hindi will be the third language in Marathi and English medium schools for Classes 1 to 5.

The GR further stated that students were allowed to choose from other Indian languages in the place of Hindi if 20 students per grade in a school express the desire to study any Indian language other than Hindi.

The GR also said that Marathi continues to remain compulsory in all schools. For non-Marathi and non-English medium institutions, the curriculum from Classes 1 to 5 will now include the medium of instruction, Marathi, and English. From Classes 6 to 10, the policy will align with the existing State Curriculum Framework.

CM Fadnavis has strongly defended the government decision, saying that the three-language formula is a directive under the Central government’s New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which is binding on all states.

School Education Minister Dadaji Bhuse argued that Hindi is not mandatory and that Marathi will remain compulsory in all schools, saying that action will be taken against institutions that fail to comply.

However, opposition parties have accused the BJP-led Mahayuti government of betrayal while opposing the introduction of Hindi as a third language. Former Union Minister and NCP(SP) Sharad Pawar said no one hates Hindi as a language, but it should not be imposed.

Shiv Sena(UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray said his party was not averse to Hindi but asked why it was being forced on students. He declared that his party will not allow the state government’s move to make Hindi compulsory.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena founder Raj Thackeray questioned the need to introduce Hindi as a third language, saying that even Gujarat had not imposed Hindi in schools.

Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Harshwardhan Sapkal alleged that CM Fadnavis has once again stabbed a dagger into the heart of Maharashtra and Marathi. He further alleged that this is nothing but the BJP’s anti-Maharashtra agenda, a plot to destroy the Marathi language, Marathi identity, and the Marathi people.