Indian stock markets lost sheen in the afternoon deals with Sensex dropping as much as 506 points from the day’s top and Nifty breaking the crucial level of 10,150 as sell-off resumed after the two-day uptick in the equities following China’s move to impose additional tariffs. The benchmark Sensex crashed as much as 505.81 points to a day’s bottom of 32,999.72 from the day’s high of 33,505.53 while the broader Nifty slipped below the levels of 10,150 to a day’s low of 10,119.05, down by 160.8 points from the day’s high of 10,279.85 on Wednesday.
China will impose additional tariffs of 25% on 106 US goods including soybeans, autos, chemicals, some types of aircraft and corn products, among other agricultural goods, Reuters said in a report citing China’s finance ministry. The products targeted by the tariffs were worth $50 billion in 2017, the Reuters report added. Following the escalated tariffs, extra taxes will be levied on the on products such as whisky, cigars and tobacco, some types of beef, lubricants, and propane and other plastic products.
US orange juice, certain sorghum products, cotton, some types of wheat, as well as trucks, some SUVs, certain electric vehicles, will also be subject to the new duties, Reuters report said further. “In the latest salvo escalating the US-China trade dispute, the Trump administration proposed 25% tariffs on $50 billion worth of imports from China to protest Beijing’s alleged theft of US technology, Associated Press said in a report.
Shares of the heavyweight companies such as HDFC, HDFC Bank, Infosys, L&T, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, State Bank of India, Reliance Industries dragged the 30-share barometer Sensex into the negative territory. Except for the shares of Tata Motors (trading up 3.4%), the stock of blue-chip companies such as Axis Bank (down 2.22%), Asian Paints (down 2%), L&T (2.04%), Dr Reddy’s (down 2%), HDFC (down 1.8%), Tata Steel (down 1.7%), M&M (down 1.6%), IndusInd Bank (down 1.7%) and State Bank of India (down 1.5%) posted huge losses.
