Equity benchmarks tumbled over 1 percent on Friday, eroding investor wealth by over Rs 9 lakh crore, as US President Donald Trump's announcement of sweeping reciprocal tariffs on global trade partners, including India, sparked fears of a recession.
Sensex tanked 1,009.07 points or 1.32 percent to an intraday low of 75,286.29, while the broader NSE Nifty dropped 375.7 points or 1.61 percent to a low of 22,874.40.
Weakness was seen across the board, with sharp selling in IT, pharmaceutical and metal stocks. Market breadth remained negative, with 2,496 shares declining, 834 advancing and 116 remaining unchanged.
Among the worst performers were Tata Steel, Hindalco, Cipla, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation and Tata Motors, which plunged up to 7 percent.
Broader markets bore the brunt of the sell-off. The Nifty Midcap 100 index declined over 3 percent, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 fell 3.58 percent during intraday trade, giving up gains made in the previous two sessions.
Sectorally, the Nifty IT index slumped over 3 percent, tracking sharp losses in Wall Street’s top tech stocks. All 10 constituents of the Nifty IT index were in the red, with Coforge and Persistent Systems leading the fall.
Metal shares, too, came under heavy pressure, with Hindalco, Nalco, Vedanta and JSW Steel sliding as much as 5 percent. Analysts attributed the sell-off to concerns that Trump's new tariffs could hurt demand for industrial commodities globally.
The pharmaceutical sector was also hit after Trump hinted at imposing separate tariffs on drug imports. "We are looking at pharma as a separate category — we will be announcing that sometime in the near future, not in the distant future," he said at a media briefing.
The latest measures include a 26 percent "discounted reciprocal tariff" on Indian goods, which Trump said was about half of the 52 percent duties levied by India on American products. He termed India a "very, very tough" trade partner.
Global cues remained weak. Tokyo’s Nikkei dropped over 3 percent, and South Korea’s KOSPI fell nearly 2 percent. Markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong were shut for the Qingming festival.
Devarsh Vakil, Head of Prime Research at HDFC Securities, said, "Wall Street benchmarks slumped on Thursday, logging one of the steepest single-day percentage declines in years. President Trump’s aggressive tariff push has raised the spectre of a full-blown trade war and possible global recession.”
Overnight, the S&P 500 fell 4.9 percent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 plunged 5.5 percent. Nearly $2.5 trillion in US market capitalisation was wiped out in a single session, sending shockwaves across global markets.
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