Sensex, Nifty Likely To See Gap-down Open As Trade War Fears Mount

(RTTNews) - Indian shares look set to open sharply lower on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs affecting over 180 countries, including a 26 percent tariff on India - half the rate India imposes on U.S. imports, leaving some room for negotiation.

Good news is pharma as well as steel, copper, bullion, energy and other certain minerals that aren't available in the U.S., are exempt from the reciprocal tariff for now.

Experts said sectors like electronics, IT and automobiles will face the tariff heat, but in the medium to long term, the market is likely to absorb the impact. In the short term, FII selling may lead to volatility.

Apart from country-specific tariffs, Trump also announced the imposition of a 10 percent baseline tariff, excluding Canada and Mexico.

Investors also await cues from an upcoming RBI policy meeting, with speculation rife that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will announce a 25 basis points cut in the policy repo rate during its upcoming April 7-9 meeting.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty jumped around 0.8 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively on Wednesday, with banks and IT stocks leading the surge. The rupee ended down 2 paise at 85.52 against the dollar.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of shares to the extent of Rs 1,539 crore on Wednesday, while domestic institutional investors were net buyers of shares worth approximately Rs 2,809 crore, as per provisional data.

Asian markets were sharply lower this morning, with South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan leading regional losses as Trump escalated a global trade war with substantially higher rates on some of top trading partners, such as China, the European Union and Vietnam, sparking concerns over inflation and growth.

U.S. 10-year Treasury yields slumped, and the dollar slid broadly, helping push gold prices to a new record high above $3,150 per ounce. Oil prices were down nearly 3 percent on demand concerns.

U.S. stocks recovered from an early slide to end higher overnight ahead of President Trump's tariffs announcement.

There was cheer on the economic front, with private sector employment rising more than expected in March and new orders for manufacturing goods increasing solidly in February.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.9 percent, the S&P 500 added 0.7 percent and the Dow rose 0.6 percent.

European stocks closed on a weak note Wednesday on tariff jitters. The pan European STOXX 600 fell half a percent.

The German DAX declined 0.7 percent, France's CAC 40 eased 0.2 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 dipped 0.3 percent.