Markets surrender early gains to trade lower
Mumbai: Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty began the trade on a positive note on Thursday but soon gave up all gains and were trading lower in a volatile trade amid selling in HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel shares.
The 30-share BSE Sensex opened higher by 578.36 points or 0.78 per cent to 74,308.59 in initial trade. The NSE Nifty went up 154 points or 0.68 per cent to 22,491.30.
However, both the benchmark indices soon pared their early gains and slipped in the red.
The 30-share BSE quoted 305.25 points lower at 73,424.98, and the Nifty declined by 86.05 points to 22,251.25.
From the Sensex pack, UltraTech Cement, Bharti Airtel, Titan, ITC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys, Nestle India, HDFC Bank and Bajaj Finserv were among the laggards.
On the other hand, Asian Paints, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, Zomato, Mahindra & Mahindra, HCL Technologies and Axis Bank were the gainers.
"We are in a highly uncertain and volatile situation for global trade, global economy and markets. The end game of Trump's tariff policy is unclear," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.
Vijayakumar said that President Donald Trump's latest declaration granting exemption from hiked tariffs to imports of Canadian and Mexican autos indicate that his intention is to negotiate from a position of strength.
"So deals and settlements are possible but they are not going to be smooth," he added.
In Asian markets, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Seoul were quoting higher.
US markets ended higher in overnight deals on Wednesday.
"On the global front, Asian markets gained up to 1 per cent, driven by auto stocks, while the US market rose over 1 per cent after the Trump administration granted a one-month tariff reprieve for auto imports from Mexico and Canada, signalling potential reductions in trade tensions," Vikas Jain, Head of Research at Reliance Securities, said.
Meanwhile, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 2,895.04 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude went up by 0.63 per cent to USD 69.74 a barrel.
On Wednesday, the 30-share BSE Sensex surged by 740.30 points to close at 73,730.23. Cutting short its record 10-day falling streak, the broader Nifty of NSE rebounded by 254.65 points to settle at 22,337.30.
