As the week drew to a close, Indian markets found themselves at the intersection of global anxiety and domestic resilience — crude oil climbing on fears over the Strait of Hormuz, Wall Street retreating from record highs, and Asian equities surrendering their footing. GIFT Nifty's pre-dawn decline of 101 points signaled that Thursday's modest gains would not carry forward without a fight. In this moment, markets do what they have always done in times of uncertainty: they pause, they weigh, and they wait for the next piece of the human story to arrive.