India’s stock market was lower at the opening bell today, after a bruising selloff in the previous session, tracking global peers convulsed by US President Donald Trump’s tantrums on Greenland.
The 30-share S&P BSE Sensex fell as much as half a percent while the wider Nifty 50 eased 0.40%. Thirteen of the 16 major sectors logged losses. The broader small-caps and mid-caps lost 0.3% each.
On Tuesday, the equity benchmarks lost about 1.4% and 1.3%, respectively—their steepest single-day percentage drop in more than eight months, and logged their lowest closing levels in more than three months.
Equities have come under pressure from elevated global trade and geopolitical uncertainty sparked by Trump’s threats to acquire Greenland and reignite a trade war with the European Union. A choppy domestic results season marked by misses from heavyweights such as Reliance Industries Ltd. and ICICI Bank Ltd. isn’t helping matters either.
“If the threatened tariffs come into effect, Europe will retaliate and this will lead to a trade war with bad consequences for global trade and global growth,” V.K. Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments Ltd., said in an emailed statement.
“If such a scenario plays out stock markets will witness further selling. On the other hand, if Trump chickens out as he had done in the past, or succumbs to pressure, markets will rebound.”