Dalal Street hit a pause on its positive momentum as it with both the Sensex and Nifty taking a hit a day before Trump’s additional tariff of 25% comes into effect.
The S&P BSE Sensex was down by 624.03 points to 81,011.88, while the NSE Nifty50 lost 191.85 points to 24,775.90 as of 9:40 am.
The BSE Sensex showed a heavily negative start as trading commenced today, with most stocks tanking at the opening bell.
Among the few gainers, Hindustan Unilever led with a rise of 0.57%, followed by Infosys which gained 0.27%. Tata Consultancy Services climbed 0.20%, but the positive momentum was limited to just these three stocks.
On the losing side, Sun Pharma faced the biggest decline, crashing 3.63%. Adani Ports fell 1.59%, while Power Grid Corporation dropped 1.53%. Bharat Electronics Limited lost 1.48% and Tata Steel declined 1.47%.
The market opening highlighted a severe crash with widespread selling pressure across most sectors
WHY IS STOCK MARKET FALLING TODAY?
“As the US tariffs are going to kick start, the market is witnessing some kind of nervousness at this point of time and also, as long as the Nifty drifts below 25000 level, some kind of weakness is persistent in the market. These are the reasons for the market to be in the negative territory at this point of time,” said Kranthi Bathini, Director – Equity strategy. WealthMills Securities Pvt Ltd.
“Ahead of the holiday, investors and traders are trying to be on sideways at this point of time. Mainly gems and jewelries, textile, aqua, these are the companies mostly affected right now,” he added.
Other than these factors, investors were cautious in anticipation of the outcome of the PMO meeting over Trump tariffs that is scheduled for Tuesday.
The Nifty indices displayed a negative picture as trading began today. The Nifty Midcap 100 fell 0.97% while Nifty Smallcap 100 declined 1.13%, and India VIX surged 4.06%. Among the sectoral indices, only Nifty FMCG showed positive momentum with a gain of 0.14%.
On the losing side, most sectors faced selling pressure with Nifty Pharma leading the decline at 1.50%, followed by Nifty Healthcare which dropped 1.49% and Nifty Realty at 1.03%.
Other major losers included Nifty Financial Services at 0.94%, Nifty Metal at 0.95%, Nifty Private Bank at 0.92%, Nifty PSU Bank at 0.78%, Nifty Consumer Durables at 0.77%, Nifty Auto at 0.51%, Nifty Oil & Gas at 0.46%, Nifty Media at 0.43%, and Nifty IT at 0.17%.
Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited, said that despite sluggish earnings growth and headwinds like high tariffs, the market continues to be resilient.
He explained that resilient market co-existing with tepid earnings growth has made India the most expensive market in the world.
“FIIs have been sustained sellers; but massive DII buying totally eclipsing FII selling is supporting the market even amidst strong headwinds. Since the principal reason for the market’s resilience is liquidity and liquidity flows are likely to sustain, the market is unlikely to correct significantly and the elevated valuations may continue. As a measure of abundant caution, investors may avoid unjustifiably expensive smallcaps and focus on largecaps which are reasonably fairly valued,” said Vijayakumar.