GIFT Nifty was down more than 150 points on Friday, signalling a weak start for Indian equities after a broad sell-off swept through Asian markets amid heavy profit booking in artificial intelligence (AI)-linked stocks.

The weakness followed sharp declines across Asia, with Japan and South Korea leading the losses. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 4.5%, while South Korea’s Kospi dropped as much as 6.8%, dragged lower by steep losses in semiconductor giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 1.7%, China’s Shanghai Composite lost 1.4% and Taiwan’s Taiex fell 3.6%. Australia was the lone major market to buck the trend, edging higher.

The sell-off came after investors rushed to lock in gains following the strong rally in AI-related stocks over recent months. Market sentiment also weakened after Wall Street ended mixed overnight, with technology stocks coming under pressure despite better-than-expected earnings from chipmakers Qualcomm and Micron Technology. Apple shares also declined sharply after the company announced price increases across several products.

Technology stocks bore the brunt of the selling in Asia. Samsung Electronics dropped 7%, SK Hynix lost 6.6%, while Japan’s SoftBank Group slumped more than 13% and semiconductor equipment maker Advantest fell nearly 11%.

For Indian markets, investors will also keep an eye on key technical levels after Thursday’s volatile session.

According to Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities, the Nifty remains in a positive short-term trend despite failing to break above a falling trendline on the daily chart.
“The Nifty remained volatile during the session amid the BSE F&O expiry as the index failed to break out above the falling trendline on the daily timeframe. However, the overall trend continues to remain positive, with the index sustaining above the 50-day exponential moving average. The RSI remains in a positive crossover, indicating strengthening momentum. The trend is likely to stay positive as long as the index holds above 23,800, while 24,500 remains the immediate upside target,” he said.The sharp decline in GIFT Nifty suggests domestic markets could open lower, tracking weak global cues and continued caution around richly valued technology stocks.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)

Revolut, the fintech that has long worn its remote-first credentials as a badge of difference, has confirmed that its newest recruits will no longer enjoy the same freedom.

From 2027, graduates and interns joining the company will be required to spend at least three days a week in the office, a notable shift for a business that has spent years arguing that results matter more than location.

The change applies only to those at the very start of their careers. Explaining the decision, the company said “the early stages of a career benefit from in-person collaboration and mentoring”, a line of reasoning that will sound familiar to anyone who has followed the steady retreat from fully remote working across the City. For everyone else, Revolut was at pains to stress, “our remote-first policy is unchanged”.

It is a carefully drawn distinction. Until now, graduates were free to choose whether they worked from home or came into the office, and the company’s headline-grabbing perks remain firmly in place. Chief among them is the 120-day “workation”, which lets staff work remotely from abroad, “exploring new cultures while staying productive and connected”. Chief executive Nik Storonsky, who co-founded Revolut in 2015 with Vlad Yatsenko, told staff last year that the firm cared “more about what you do than where you do it”, and insisted the flexible approach would survive as long as productivity held up.

The recalibration arrives at a moment of considerable momentum for the group. Revolut became a fully licensed UK bank earlier this year after a long wait for regulatory approval, and was valued at 75 billion dollars in November 2025, eclipsing several of Britain’s established high street lenders. Founded as an app that let people in the UK and Europe spend abroad at interbank exchange rates, it now serves more than 70 million customers and supports transfers across roughly 160 countries and regions. The company has also signalled that about 40 per cent of its 12,000-strong global workforce, spread across more than 30 countries, will be based in India by the end of this year.

For all the talk of disruption, the policy itself looks rather conventional. Hybrid working is now firmly the British norm: the Office for National Statistics reported in June 2025 that around 28 per cent of workers split their week between home and the office, with the figure rising to nearly half in information and communications businesses. The debate over whether younger staff in particular should be in the room has been running for some time, with voices ranging from JP Morgan’s leadership to Lord Sugar urging young people to get their “bums back into the office”.

Employment lawyers see little to quarrel with. Jo Mackie, employment law partner at national firm Michelmores, said Revolut was “falling into line with most other major employers in making hybrid working the norm, when practical”, adding that “working alongside colleagues is particularly important for junior staff to learn and be mentored”. The sentiment is echoed across the sector, where HR specialists have noted a growing consensus that early-career development is hard to replicate over video calls.

The wider message for Revolut watchers is one of maturation. A company built on doing things differently is, in this corner at least, beginning to look a little more like the institutions it set out to challenge.

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The Midlands has overtaken every other part of Britain outside the capital for foreign direct investment (FDI) employment, creating almost 6,000 jobs last year even as investment into the UK slumped to a ten-year low.

According to the EY 2026 UK Attractiveness Survey, the region generated 5,970 FDI-related jobs in 2025, more than Scotland and Wales combined and equivalent to roughly one in five of all such jobs created across the UK. That makes it the leading location for overseas-backed employment outside London, a notable result in a year when global investors turned cautious.

The region also landed 102 FDI projects, ranking it behind only Greater London and Scotland for the volume of inward investment won. The figure represents 14 per cent of all UK projects, the Midlands’ third-highest share in a decade.

Investor sentiment, meanwhile, is pointing upwards. Among companies planning to invest, the West Midlands is now seen as the third most attractive UK region, and Birmingham ranks as the second most sought-after city outside the capital, despite the reputational knocks the city has absorbed over the past year.

The headline numbers are all the more striking given the wider backdrop. Project numbers across Europe fell by 6.6 per cent in 2025, while the UK recorded a sharper 14.4 per cent decline, securing 730 projects nationally, the lowest tally in ten years.

Only three parts of the UK bucked the trend on project numbers: Greater London, up 5 per cent, Northern Ireland, up 65 per cent, and Wales, up 56 per cent. The South West held flat, and every other region went backwards. The Midlands itself was not immune, with projects down 16.4 per cent year on year and FDI jobs off 29.3 per cent, from the 122 projects and 8,439 jobs it banked in 2024.

Even so, holding on to the top regional spot for jobs and a podium position for projects, while the national market shrank, underlines the region’s pull for international capital. As one recent analysis of regional investment trends has noted, the competition between UK regions for overseas money has intensified, making the Midlands’ staying power more meaningful than the raw decline might suggest.

Business and professional services emerged as the standout sector for the Midlands, drawing 18 projects, a sharp jump from just five in 2024. Transportation manufacturers and suppliers came second with 16 projects, while software and IT services climbed to third with 14, up from nine the year before.

The United States remained the single largest source of investment, accounting for 14.7 per cent of projects. Germany, India and France followed, each delivering 10 projects apiece.

That momentum builds on a longer run of form. The region was recently named the UK’s top regional destination for foreign investment, and has previously been recognised as one of Europe’s strongest performers for inward investment strategy, finishing second in the continent at a major European investment awards.

Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands, said his economic strategy was beginning to bear fruit. “My Growth Plan is clear in targeting international markets to get our economy firing on all cylinders. And it’s an approach that’s working. More jobs are now being created by global companies in the region than in any UK location outside of London,” he said.

“My recent trade missions to India and China, alongside the Prime Minister, have opened even more doors for our businesses, universities and other investors. Getting more deals over the line with some of the world’s biggest players will help deliver my number one priority as Mayor, a stronger economy with more high-quality jobs for local people and more money in their pockets.”

Claire Ward, Mayor of the East Midlands, said the figures reflected confidence in the wider region. “These figures underline the Midlands’ continued strength as a destination for international investment in a highly competitive global market, and demonstrates sustained investor confidence in our people, businesses and places,” she said. “For the East Midlands, international investment creates high-quality jobs, strengthens local supply chains, and expands opportunity in communities across our region.”

Neil Rami, chief executive of the West Midlands Growth Company, struck a more cautionary note on what it will take to keep the momentum going. “Our unmatched scale, connected innovation ecosystem and deep talent pool make the region a compelling proposition for international investors,” he said. “However, in an increasingly competitive global market, investment does not simply follow economic fundamentals. Sustaining growth will require continued targeted intervention, strong international partnerships and a clear, market-led proposition that aligns investor demand with local opportunities.”

The picture is reinforced by separate official data. The Department for Business and Trade’s inward investment results for 2025/26 show the West Midlands attracted more FDI jobs, 18,036, over the past three years than any UK location outside London. The region secured 10 per cent of all UK projects and 18 per cent of projects and jobs created outside the capital, with its 25 per cent fall in projects broadly mirroring a 26 per cent national decline.

Behind the statistics sit a string of concrete wins. Networking and security giant Cisco has chosen STEAMhouse in Birmingham’s Knowledge Quarter, part of the West Midlands Investment Zone, as the home of new office space.

Adele Every, managing director, public sector at Cisco UK and Ireland, said the city’s assets made the decision straightforward. “Top tech talent, world-class innovation infrastructure and a collaborative ecosystem are key to our mission of powering an inclusive future for all. Birmingham’s strengths in these areas were clear to see, making it the obvious location for our new regional hub.”

Other arrivals span fintech, fashion and software. Islamic property finance provider Offa has invested in new offices in Solihull, where executive chairman Sultan Choudhury said the firm’s team had doubled in size over the past year. Australian fashion brand Hello Molly has opened an e-commerce warehouse in Dudley, with operations director Ena Eaton praising the region’s “excellent transport and logistics infrastructure”. Software provider Target Integration has set up in Coventry through the West Midlands Global Growth Programme, with chief executive Rohit Thakral citing the city’s proximity to the West Midlands tech sector and the University of Warwick Science Park.

The Growth Programme, which offers tailored support to help international businesses navigate the UK investment process, is now accepting applications for 2026.

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A dayslong tech selloff raised new questions about whether America’s artificial-intelligence boom could continue at its breakneck pace. On Wednesday, Micron Technology MU 15.74%increase; up pointing triangle answered.

The memory maker blew past analyst expectations for its May quarter and projected revenue and profit that also topped Wall Street’s forecast. Its shares jumped 14% in after-hours trading, propelling a rally in Nasdaq futures.

Copyright ©2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

A Hampshire letting agent has launched a free property portal, wagering that agents and landlords worn down by the rising cost of advertising will welcome a route to market that does not come with a monthly bill.

Find My Move, the brainchild of letting agent Mark Vine and housing professional Chris Moss, has signed up more than 9,000 subscribers and stitched together a network of listings drawn from over 6,600 estate and letting agencies across the country. The platform now carries upwards of 58,000 rental properties and more than 435,000 homes for sale, with subscriber numbers climbing by around 3,000 a month.

More than half of registered users are actively searching for a property, the founders say, and over 200,000 people have visited the site in the past three months.

The timing is pointed. Frustration over what agents pay to list their stock has been building for years, and the figures help explain why. Analysis reported by Property Industry Eye found that Rightmove’s listing fees can swallow as much as 13.5 per cent of an estate agency’s sales commission in lower-value markets such as Glasgow and Newcastle, with the average British agent handing over 7.2 per cent. For independent firms already wrestling with tighter margins, that is a sizeable slice of income.

Those pressures land on a private rented sector that is itself under strain. Average UK private rents rose 4.4 per cent in the year to November 2025, according to the Office for National Statistics, squeezing tenants while landlords face higher borrowing and compliance costs of their own.

The idea for Find My Move grew out of Vine’s experience running a letting agency and the conversations it prompted with fellow professionals.

“After six years in lettings, I found myself having the same conversations with agents time and again,” Vine said. “Many felt they were paying increasingly large sums simply to advertise housing stock at a time when businesses across the sector are facing growing pressures.

“We wanted to create a platform that offered agents and landlords another route to market without the significant costs often associated with property advertising. The response so far has been extremely encouraging and gives us confidence that there is genuine demand for a different approach.

“With more than 9,000 subscribers already on the platform and thousands more joining every month, we believe Find My Move can become a valuable additional channel for agents, landlords and property seekers alike.”

Unlike the established portals, Find My Move is free for agents and landlords to use, with the founders planning to earn revenue through advertising and commercial partnerships rather than subscriptions. It is a model that echoes a wider appetite for lower-cost listing options, a theme Business Matters has explored in its rundown of the top free rental property listing websites in the UK.

Chris Moss said the immediate focus was growth. “Our priority is to continue growing the number of agents, landlords and property seekers using the platform across the UK,” he said. “We’ve created Find My Move to be accessible, straightforward and beneficial for everyone involved in the property journey. The scale of engagement we’ve seen already shows there is an appetite for new ideas and alternative ways of connecting people with property opportunities.”

The platform will remain free for agents and landlords for the foreseeable future, the pair say, as they concentrate on expansion and building awareness across a sector where questions of standards and oversight remain live, as Business Matters has reported in its coverage of calls for regulation of property agents.

Longer term, the founders want Find My Move to play a broader role in widening access to housing, working with agents, landlords, local authorities and other stakeholders to help more people find suitable accommodation. For landlords still weighing how to bring a property to market, the perennial question of whether to use a letting agent at all is one the new portal is quietly hoping to reshape.

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Former U.S. women’s national team star Mia Hamm has expressed reservations about FIFA’s decision to implement mandatory hydration breaks during all matches of the 2026 World Cup, citing potential disruptions to game momentum and tactical advantages for coaches.

Hamm, who led the United States to World Cup titles in 1991 and 1999, told USA TODAY that while she understands the league’s intentions, the three-minute breaks at the 22-minute mark of each half could alter the natural flow of matches. The two-time champion emphasized that soccer’s beauty lies in its continuous play and players’ ability to adapt during games.

The hydration breaks, previously used only in extreme heat conditions, represent a significant change for the expanded 48-team tournament being hosted across North America. FIFA’s decision aims to protect player health amid concerns about heat and physical demands.

Hamm noted that the breaks provide coaches with additional time to make tactical adjustments using technology like iPads and sideline communication. “It can be a momentum change for a lot of teams that are really going after teams,” she said. “Then all of a sudden you get a break and now these coaches have iPads on the sideline.”

Player and Coach Perspectives

The introduction of mandatory hydration breaks has generated mixed reactions throughout the tournament. Several players and coaches have questioned their necessity, particularly in matches played under moderate conditions.

Critics argue that the breaks interrupt game rhythm and provide unfair advantages for tactical adjustments. Supporters emphasize player welfare and the importance of preventing heat-related issues during intense competition.

Hamm acknowledged the importance of player safety while expressing preference for traditional match structure. “I just would rather them play 45 minutes with added time just through rather than cutting it short,” she said.

The U.S. women’s national team legend praised the current men’s team’s performance and spirit. “There’s no one who supports the men’s team stronger than the women’s national team players, both current [and] past,” Hamm said.

Tournament Context

The 2026 World Cup’s expanded format and North American venues have introduced various logistical and environmental considerations. Host cities have implemented measures to ensure player and fan safety during summer matches.

FIFA’s hydration policy reflects broader efforts to address player welfare in modern football. The organization has increasingly focused on medical protocols and match conditions in response to evolving scientific understanding.

The United States men’s national team has performed strongly in the group stage, advancing with positive results. Their success has boosted national interest in soccer and highlighted the sport’s growing popularity in America.

Historical Perspective on Player Welfare

Soccer governing bodies have gradually implemented changes to protect players from extreme conditions. Previous tournaments used hydration breaks selectively during particularly hot matches.

The mandatory application across all 2026 games represents a significant policy shift. FIFA’s decision balances player safety with maintaining competitive integrity and match flow.

Hamm’s perspective carries weight given her experience as a pioneering women’s player and advocate for athlete welfare. Her comments reflect the views of many who value soccer’s traditional continuous play.

Broader Implications for the Sport

The hydration break debate highlights ongoing discussions about balancing tradition with player safety in professional sports. Similar conversations occur across various athletic disciplines regarding rest periods and environmental conditions.

FIFA’s approach could influence other sports governing bodies considering similar measures. The policy’s effectiveness will be evaluated based on player health outcomes and match quality.

The 2026 World Cup’s focus on player welfare aligns with broader industry trends toward evidence-based approaches to athlete care. Scientific research continues informing decisions about training, recovery and competition conditions.

U.S. Soccer’s Growing Prominence

The strong performance of the U.S. men’s national team has generated excitement and increased visibility for American soccer. Their success demonstrates progress in player development and competitive infrastructure.

Hamm emphasized the interconnectedness of men’s and women’s programs. “We know how hard it is. We know the opportunity in front of them,” she said regarding the men’s team’s chances.

The co-hosting of the World Cup has accelerated soccer’s growth in the United States. Infrastructure improvements, youth participation and professional league development have all benefited from increased attention.

Looking Forward

As the tournament progresses into knockout stages, hydration breaks will continue being implemented. Their impact on match outcomes and player performance will be analyzed by coaches, players and medical staff.

FIFA may evaluate the policy’s effectiveness after the tournament concludes. Feedback from participants and observers could influence future decisions about match protocols.

The debate around hydration breaks reflects soccer’s ongoing evolution as a global sport. Balancing tradition, player welfare and competitive fairness remains an important consideration for governing bodies.

Hamm’s comments contribute to important discussions about the sport’s direction. Her perspective as a legendary player and advocate carries significant influence in shaping opinions about modern football practices.

The 2026 World Cup continues delivering memorable moments while prompting conversations about the game’s future. Player welfare, tactical innovation and competitive balance will remain central themes as the tournament advances.