Mumbai: Benchmark Sensex declined by over 148 points in early trade today, tracking a weak trend in global markets as the trade spat between the US and China intensified. Unabated capital outflows by foreign funds and profit-booking by retail investors too dampened sentiment. The 30-share index, which had lost 73.88 points in the previous session, drifted down by 148.34 points, or 0.42%, to 35,399.92.The NSE Nifty too was quoting lower by 52.55 points, or 0.49%, at 10,747.30.
All sectoral indices, led by oil and gas, power, realty and power were in the negative zone, falling up to 1.31%. The laggards included Vedanta, HUL, Infosys, Bajaj Auto, Wipro, Coal India, Hero MotoCorp, NTPC, Maruti Suzuki, RIL, ICICI Bank, PowerGrid and IndusInd Bank, falling by up to 1.64%. Stocks of oil marketing companies such as HPCL, BPCL and IOC, which had a good day yesterday, came under selling pressure in line with the overall trend and fell up to 3%.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net of Rs 754.43 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 824.10 crore yesterday, provisional data showed.Global markets were rattled after US President Donald Trump unveiled plans to impose 10% tariffs on USD 200 billion worth of Chinese goods on top of the previous punitive measures over Beijing’s “unacceptable” move to raise its own tariffs.
In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index tumbled 2.20%, while Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.82% in early trade today. Shanghai Composite too declined 2.58%.The US Dow Jones ended 0.41% lower in yesterday’s trade.