Tariff trauma spooks D-St as sensex slides 849 points

Mumbai: The higher US tariffs against select Indian imports to the world's largest economy that is set to kick off today, and no end in sight to the India-US impasse, spooked Dalal Street as investors pressed the sell button on Tuesday. In addition, Wednesday being a trading holiday also weighed on investor sentiment since any negative development for the market will have to be factored in after two days, on Thursday.

These reasons pushed investors on a risk-off mode and as a result, sensex slid 849 points (1%) to close at 80,787 points. On the NSE, Nifty lost 256 points (1%) to close at 24,712 points. On both the exchanges, selling was across sectors except in the FMCG counters which gained on expectations of a major boost for these companies from the ensuing cut in GST rates, market players said.

According to Vinod Nair of Geojit Investments, market sentiment turned cautious as the US penalty tariff deadline is set to expire. "The persistent depreciation of the (rupee) is adding pressure and may further impact foreign institutional inflows. Investors are closely monitoring the govt's efforts to support economic growth, including proposed GST rate revisions and sector-specific relief measures for industries affected by higher tariffs," Nair wrote.

The day's session left investors poorer by nearly Rs 4.5 lakh crore with BSE's market capitalisation now at Rs 449.5 lakh crore.

The selling was led by foreign funds while domestic funds were big buyers in Tuesday's market. End-of-the-session data on BSE showed foreign portfolio investors were net sellers at Rs 6,516 crore while domestic institutions were net sellers at Rs 7,060 crore.

Of the 30 sensex stocks, only five closed with gains. Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank contributed the most to sensex's loss. On the other hand, buying in HUL, Maruti, ITC and TCS cushioned the index's fall to some extent. In the broader market, there were 2,973 laggards on BSE to 1,155 gainers. On the sectoral front, real estate, metals and telecom were major losers.


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