It was another day of Indian stock markets treading in the red, with the Sensex tanking 706 points as investor sentiment continued to remain fearful after the US-imposed 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods came into effect on August 27.
Foreign fund outflows also remained persistent, in line with investors’ dented sentiment, even though the government’s decision to extend duty exemption on cotton imports uplifted traders’ mood.
The 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 705.97 points or 0.87 per cent to settle at 80,080.57. During the day, it dropped 773.52 points or 0.95 per cent to 80,013.02.
The 50-share NSE Nifty dived 211.15 points or 0.85 per cent to 24,500.90.
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From the Sensex firms, HCL Tech, Infosys, Power Grid, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Bharti Airtel and ICICI Bank were among the major laggards.
However, Titan, Larsen & Toubro, Maruti and Axis Bank were among the gainers.
"Domestic equities ended lower as pessimism took hold following the implementation of tariffs on Indian goods, dampening investor sentiments. While the cotton import duty exemption briefly lifted hopes of policy support to counter tariff impacts, triggering a short-lived intra-day recovery, investor mood remained fragile, with largecaps declining and mid and smallcaps underperforming amid risk-off sentiment," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited.
The government on Thursday extended duty-free import of cotton by three more months till December 31 to support textile exporters facing steep 50 per cent tariffs in the US.
In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi, Japan's Nikkei 225 index and Shanghai's SSE Composite index settled in positive territory, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended lower.
European markets were trading on a mixed note even as the US markets ended in positive territory on Wednesday as AI giant Nvidia posted profitable second quarter earnings.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.62 per cent to USD 67.63 a barrel.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹6,516.49 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data. DIIs, however, bought stocks worth ₹7,060.37 crore.
The domestic equity markets were closed on Wednesday on account of Ganesh Chaturthi, but had closed with a dive of 849.37 points in the case of Sensex, which had settled at 80,786.54, and 255.70 points or 1.02 per cent for Nifty, which had ended at 24,712.05.
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