Bulls and bears tussle over Nifty at 22,400, Sensex slips after RBI lowers GDP forecast, tariff jitters grow

Wall Street fell for a fourth consecutive session overnight, with Asian markets tracking losses.

Dalal Street's bulls and bears were engaged in a tough fight on April 9, as bears tried to pull Nifty 50 under the key 22,400 level, while bulls fought to defend the support. Sensex tumbled around 300 points in the afternoon leg of trade, as investors digested the Reserve Bank of India's repo rate cut and lowered growth forecast for FY26.

At 12:01 pm, the Sensex was down 385.23 points or 0.52 percent at 73,841.85, and the Nifty was down 127.70 points or 0.57 percent at 22,408.15. About 1036 shares advanced, 2179 shares declined, and 136 shares unchanged.

The Reserve Bank of India trimmed its GDP growth estimates for FY26 to 6.5 percent, down from 6.7 percent earlier. Further, the RBI's Monetary Policy Committee slashed the key lending rate by 25 basis points, taking a unanimous decision.

Further, the central bank shifted its stance to 'accommodative'. On the flip side, the RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra also stated that the CPI inflation was seen at four percent for FY26 versus 4.2 percent earlier.

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"Two things are clear: India will be one of the large economies least impacted by this Trump shakeout. Our domestic consumption segments are resilient. The 25 bp cut in policy rates in the monetary policy announcement can give a further monetary stimulus to the economy," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments.

The crash in crude is a big positive for the Indian economy. Of course, a global recession, or worse, stagflation, can do a lot of damage. Investors should be cognisant of that, he added.

Escalating tensions regarding tariffs have caused global markets to sell-off. U.S. President Donald Trump pledged an overall 104 percent levy against Chinese goods, rapidly increasing his previous tariff after Beijing retaliated, by imposing 34 percent tariffs on all goods imported from the U.S. If there is a response from Beijing on Trump's latest tariffs, the situation could further devolve, noted experts.

Overnight, Wall Street extended losses to a fourth consecutive session, with S&P 500 giving up the 5,000 level, falling almost 19 percent from its all-time high. After opening in the green, the Dow Jones index tumbled 0.8 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index cracked 2.5 percent.

Asian markets were also gripped with a bearish sentiment, as Japan's Nikkei 225 crashed three percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index and the Taiwan Weighted index tumbled two percent. Indices in China, such as the Shanghai Composite and the CSI 100 traded with cuts.

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