Benchmark indices Nifty 50 and Sensex opened with losses during the morning deals on April 4, tracking negative global cues, with the sell-off intensifying over the session.
At 09:58 am, the Sensex was down 617.99 points or 0.81 percent at 75,677.37, and the Nifty was down 246.70 points or 1.06 percent at 23,003.40. About 818 shares advanced, 2222 shares declined, and 121 shares unchanged.
On the sectoral front, IT stocks continued their sell off, tracking the fall in Wall Street's Mag 7 counters, with the Nifty IT index crashing two percent in trade; Coforge, Persistent Systems were the top losers on the index, while all 10 constituents traded in the red.
Nifty Auto, Nifty Metal and Nifty Pharma also crashed over one percent each, as investors trimmed their holdings in the counters. All 13 sectoral indices traded in the red.
The broader markets underperformed the benchmarks, the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 fell over one percent each, as the volatile SMIDs bore the brunt of selling.
"Markets are going through heightened uncertainty which is likely to last some time. A trade war has been triggered by Trump and retaliatory tariffs from China, EU and others are on the cards. This will only extend the period of uncertainty and confusion in the market. It appears that contraction in global trade and decline in global growth are inevitable in the present context," stated V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.
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U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled global reciprocal tariffs at an event at the White House. For India, the President announced 26 percent 'kinder' reciprocal tariffs. Despite US being a significant trading partner of India, Trump has termed the latter as a “tariff king” and “tariff abuser”.
In the previous session, Indian markets suffered less than their Asian peers in the previous session after President Donald Trump’s tariff measures were perceived as less severe on the India's economic growth and corporate profits.
India’s relative advantage in US tariff exposure over other Asian exporters could unlock powerful tailwinds for its exports. With US tariffs on Chinese and Vietnamese goods over 50 percent and 40 percent, respectively, India’s more moderate 26 percent rate positions it to capture a slice of shifting supply chains.
On the flip side, overnight, about $2.5 trillion was wiped out from US stocks after the S&P 500 declined 4.9 percent and the Nasdaq 100 slumped 5.5 percent on April 3, the biggest drop since 2020 for each.
Among the worst hit, the new darlings of American investors, the "Magnificent 7" technology stocks (Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Nvidia, Tesla, and Meta) bore the brunt of the selling. Cumulatively, the Magnificent 7 index saw around $600 billion in wealth wiped off, with the combined market-cap of the seven stocks falling to $8.34 billion, down from $8.94 trillion earlier.
On a stock specific approach, Bajaj Finance was the top gainer on the Nifty 50 in a muted market as Bajaj Finance reported a robust performance in Q4 FY25, with its assets under management (AUM) rising 26 percent year-on-year to Rs 4.17 lakh crore as of 31 March 2025. Shares of the NBFC were up 0.7 percent at Rs 8,654.95.
IndusInd Bank shares sank 2.3 percent to Rs 693.45 per share, after international brokerage UBS maintained its bearish outlook on the lender, cutting its price target on the stock by 22 percent to Rs 600 from Rs 770 earlier.
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