By Bharath Rajeswaran and Indranil Sarkar
(Reuters) – India’s shares fell on Tuesday due to uncertainty over Donald Trump’s plans for India after the U.S. President announced trade tariffs on neighbouring countries within hours of taking office.
The Nifty 50 fell 1.37% to end at 23,024.65, while the BSE Sensex shed 1.6% to finish at 75,838.36.
Investors around the world took stock of Trump, who soon after assuming office on Monday, floated the idea of universal tariffs and announced trade tariff plans on Mexico and Canada as soon as Feb. 1. [MKTS/GLOB]
That spooked domestic investors on possible actions aimed at India. During his presidential campaign, Trump had threatened to impose tariffs on countries such as India, Brazil and China.
“Uncertainty over Trump’s tariff plans on India spooked domestic markets on the day and triggered a rise in volatility,” said G Chokkalingam, founder and head of research at Equinomics Research.
Volatility rose to 17, the highest since Aug. 6, 2024.
All the 13 major sectors logged losses. The more domestically-focussed smallcaps and midcaps fell about 2.3% each.
The U.S. policy framework under Trump could impact the strength of the dollar and Treasury yields, as well as raise inflation, which could mean fewer interest rate cuts.
That, consequently, could draw foreign flows away from emerging markets such as India. Indeed, foreign portfolio investors (FPI) have sold Indian stocks and bonds worth about $6.7 billion so far in January.
Among individual stocks, online food delivery platform Zomato lost 10.5%, extending its drop from the previous session, after posting a slump in its December-quarter profit.
Mankind Pharma fell 5.4% after Macquarie downgraded the stock to “underperform”, citing pressure in its domestic formulations business.
Apollo Hospitals rose 2%, the most on the Nifty 50, after Kotak upgraded the stock to “buy”.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran and Indranil Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Savio D’Souza)
