Oil Dips Below $100 on U.S.-Iran Peace Deal Hopes

Brent crude dropped below $100 a barrel for the first time in more than two weeks on Monday, as Yahoo Finance UK reported that optimism over a potential U.S.-Iran peace deal rattled oil markets and lifted equities across Asia.

Brent futures slid roughly 4% to around $99.39 per barrel in early trading. The move marked a notable retreat from recent elevated levels tied directly to the ongoing Iran conflict.

Trump Signals Progress on Iran Negotiations

U.S. President Donald Trump said over the weekend that Washington and Tehran had “largely negotiated” a memorandum of understanding. The proposed agreement would aim to end the three-month-old war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. That waterway had carried roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and LNG shipments before hostilities broke out.

However, the White House walked back expectations on Sunday. Officials cautioned that an imminent breakthrough should not be assumed. The mixed signals tempered some of the early market enthusiasm but failed to reverse the broader commodity price decline.

Background: Months of War-Driven Oil Pressure

The Iran conflict, which erupted in late February, has kept energy markets on edge for nearly three months. Oil prices surged in its early weeks as traders priced in supply disruption risk through the Hormuz corridor. Any diplomatic resolution would represent a meaningful shift in the global energy supply picture. Analysts had widely cautioned that prices were unlikely to normalise while fighting continued.

Also Read: What the Strait of Hormuz Closure Means for Global Energy Markets

Indian Equities Set to Benefit

The drop in crude prices provided a direct tailwind for India, one of the world’s largest oil importers. GIFT Nifty futures pointed to the benchmark Nifty 50 opening above its Friday close of 23,719.3. Broader Asian stock markets gained approximately 1.2% on the session.

Indian equities have been under sustained pressure since the conflict began. The Nifty 50 has lost nearly 5.8% since late February. Foreign institutional investors have now offloaded approximately $23.9 billion in Indian shares so far this year, already surpassing the record annual outflow registered across all of 2025.

Friday alone saw foreign investors sell roughly $464 million worth of Indian equities, per provisional exchange data.

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