Key benchmarks continued hovering near the day's low in mid-morning trade. At 11:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 428.88 points or 1.30% at 32,577.39. The Nifty 50 index was down 134.65 points or 1.33% at 9,980.10. The Sensex was trading below the psychological 33,000 mark. The Nifty was trading below the psychological 10,000 mark. The Sensex hit its lowest intraday levels in more than 21 weeks. The Nifty hit its lowest intraday levels in more than 23 weeks.
Shares across the globe witnessed selling pressure as trade war intensified, with US President Donald Trump ordering at least $50 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports and China announcing plans for reciprocal tariffs on $3 billion of imports from the US.
Key indices hit fresh intraday low in morning trade after opening with a negative bias. The Sensex fell 471.44 points, or 1.43% at the day's low of 32,534.83 in morning trade, its lowest intraday level since 24 October 2017. The index fell 316.12 points, or 0.96% at the day's high of 32,690.15 in early trade. The Nifty fell 153.45 points, or 1.52% at the day's low of 9,961.30 in morning trade, its lowest intraday level since 11 October 2017. The index fell 101.90 points, or 1.01% at the day's high of 10,012.85 in early trade.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 1.74%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 1.96%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was quite weak. On BSE, 2,051 shares fell and 323 shares rose. A total of 110 shares were unchanged.
IT shares were mixed. Persistent Systems (down 2.91%), Oracle Financial Services Software (down 1.33%), Hexaware Technologies (down 1.15%), Wipro (down 0.88%), MindTree (down 0.79%) and TCS (down 0.22%), edged lower. Tech Mahindra (up 0.59%), MphasiS (up 0.94%) and HCL Technologies (up 1.15%), edged higher.
IT major Infosys was up 1.16%. The company announced that it has made a follow-on investment of $1.5 million through the Infosys Innovation Fund in Waterline Data Science, a leading provider of data discovery and data governance software. Infosys had made an initial investment of $4 million in the company in January 2018. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 22 March 2018.
Pharmaceutical shares declined. Piramal Enterprises (down 3.07%), Divi's Laboratories (down 2.32%), Lupin (down 2.25%), Wockhardt (down 1.84%), Cadila Healthcare (down 1.79%), Strides Shasun (down 1.75%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (down 1.28%), Alkem Laboratories (down 1.27%), Aurobindo Pharma (down 1.07%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 0.9%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (down 0.6%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (down 0.59%) and Cipla (down 0.25%), edged lower. IPCA Laboratories was up 0.34%.
Overseas, Asian markets slumped on Friday, tracking sharp falls in US stocks, which took a hit on fears of a potential trade war. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was down 4.75%.
In China, Shanghai Composite was down 3.82%. China, as a retaliation to US President Donald Trump's tariff plans, announced for reciprocal tariffs on $3 billion of imports from the US. Such imports include US pork, recycled aluminium, steel pipes, fruits and wine. China will also pursue legal action against the US at the World Trade Organization in response to the US planned tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, and called for dialog to resolve the dispute. This is a response to Trump's tariffs on Chinese imports to compensate for alleged intellectual property abuses by China.
US stocks fell sharply on Thursday, with major indices suffering their worst day in weeks as the threat of a trade war with China sparked a widespread selloff.
US President Donald Trump signed an executive memorandum on Thursday that would impose retaliatory tariffs on at least $50 billion in Chinese imports. The new measures are designed to penalise China for trade practices that the Trump administration says involve stealing American companies' intellectual property. They will primarily target certain products in the technology sector where China holds an advantage over the US. Investors are concerned that protectionist trade policies could be met with retaliatory measures by major trading partners, and that a trade war could contribute to inflation in the economy.
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