Sensex dives 352 pts over US-China trade war

MUMBAI: The escalating tariff war between US and China, with the Asian giant announcing retaliatory trade measures on Wednesday, shaved 352 points off the sensex which closed at 33,019.

The index bgan trading in the green in the early part of Wednesday's session but after China announced a tit-for-tat measure against the US, the sensex lost nearly 400 points in a little over an hour and closed near the day's low of 32,973. Of the 30 sensex stocks, 25 closed in the red. The day's session led to a Rs 67,000 crore loss to investors' wealth with BSE's current m-cap at Rs 149.6 lakh crore.

Jagannadham Thunuguntla

, SVP & Head of Research (Wealth),

Centrum Broking

, said that just when the stock market was attempting to make a comeback from the bearish sentiment seen during February and March, the re-emergence of

trade war

disturbed the momentum. "Chinese tit-for-tat response to the

US tariff hike

with a reciprocal tariff has triggered concerns that we may be in for a long drawn trade war. Trade war will be definitely the single biggest trigger point at the moment for global markets," Thunuguntla said. China on Wednesday announced tariffs on over 100 products from the US, which include soy, cars, whisky and chemicals with an annual import value of about $50 billion.