Mumbai: As the new US President Donald Trump began his second innings with signing several executive orders along with sounding threats about impending trade tariffs on certain countries and BRICS nations, both Sensex and Nifty plunged on Tuesday.
According to market experts, Trump’s remarks targeting BRICS nations, reiterating his intention to impose 100 percent tariffs on countries reducing their reliance on the US dollar for global trade, induced negative sentiments in the Indian market.
At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex tanked 1,235 points or 1.6 percent to 75,838, while the Nifty 50 dropped 320.1 points or 1.37 percent to 23,024.
The decline in the share market resulted in investors’ losing over Rs 7 lakh crore.
On the BSE Sensex, only two stocks were in the positive territory — UltraTech Cement and HCLTech.
Meanwhile, significant losses were seen in Zomato stock, which fell almost 11 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra.
Eight stocks on the Nifty 50 managed to stay in the green. Apollo Hospitals was the top gainer, up by 2.76 percent, followed by UltraTech Cement, BPCL, Tata Consumer Products, and JSW Steel. The index’s losses were led by Trent, down 4.50 percent, along with ICICI Bank, NTPC, and Mahindra & Mahindra.
According to Vikram Kasat from PL Capital-Prabhudas Lilladher, Indian stock markets erased their early gains and ended significantly lower in intraday trade.
“Large-cap stocks like Zomato, Reliance Industries, and Kotak Bank weighed heavily on the benchmark indices. Zomato was the biggest drag, contributing 170 points to the Sensex’s decline as its shares fell over 11 per cent after reporting a 57 per cent year-on-year drop in December quarter net profit,” he mentioned.
Investor sentiment remained weak amid lacklustre Q3 earnings and sustained selling by foreign institutional investors (FIIs), who have sold equities worth Rs 48,023 crore (as of January 20).
Among sectors, FMCG was the only one trading higher, with a small gain of 0.34 percent. All other sectors recorded losses. The Consumer Durables index was the worst performer, dropping 3.59 percent, followed by the Realty index, down 3.04 percent.
Other notable declines were seen in Nifty Bank, down 1.33 per cent, financial services were down 1.31 percent, auto down by 1.04 percent, and media down by 1.04 percent.
Broader markets also took a hit, with the Nifty Smallcap 100 down by 1.70 percent and the Nifty Midcap 100 losing 1.68 percent. Adding to investor concerns, India’s fear gauge, the India VIX index, surged 5.92 percent to 17.39.
The rupee initially traded strong at the opening, gaining 0.20 paise to reach 86.29 on the back of a weaker dollar overnight. The dollar softened following US President Trump’s inauguration ceremony, which introduced tariffs on imports along the Mexican and Canadian borders, creating short-term market uncertainty.
The US markets were closed on Monday to observe the Martin Luther King Jr. Day national holiday.
–IANS
Infographics: Pinaki Paul
