China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange reported July goods and services exports of $424.2 bln and imports of $333.0 bln, yielding a $91.2 bln surplus. In yuan terms exports were 2.883 tln, imports 2.263 tln, surplus 619.8 bln, and total trade turnover 5.146 tln yuan. Major service items: travel 170.4 bln yuan, other commercial services 154.1 bln, transport 150.4 bln, telecom/computer/information services 78.1 bln.

Iran's Supreme National Security Council secretary Rezai said mediators have asked Iran to propose conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and Tehran is preparing a list of those conditions.

Nifty fell for a second day on Thursday, barely holding the 24,000 mark and set to possibly extend a third consecutive weekly decline. Sensex plunged about 3% during a roughly 20‑minute closing call auction, intensifying concerns over thin liquidity and potential price manipulation and likely prompting closer scrutiny of the recently introduced closing auction price mechanism. Year-to-date Nifty has lagged mid- and small-cap indices by more than 10 percentage points as investors rotated downmarket into consumer tech, healthcare and defense/aerospace supply-chain names. That trend may be reversing: with foreign inflows resuming, large-cap profit growth is accelerating. Motilal Oswal data show June-quarter profits for large-cap firms, excluding oil marketing companies, rose 20% YoY — the fastest pace in ten quarters.