Sensex, Nifty fall in early trade over Trump tariff threats; Infosys down 2%

Benchmark stock market indices opened lower on Friday, as investor sentiment largely remains cautious due to uncertainty over Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariff threats.

Auto and IT sector stocks dragged the market down in early trade. The S&P BSE Sensex lost 282.59 points to 77,323.84, while the NSE Nifty50 was down 84.70 points to 23,507.25 as of 9:42 am.

Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited, said, “The market’s resilience, despite Trump’s reciprocal tariff threats, comes from the renewed buying by FIIs and the confidence this has given to the bulls. The bears are currently on the back foot and this market construct may continue unless Trump announces something very nasty.”

Sensex, Nestle India emerged as the top gainer, surging an impressive 1.92%. Hindustan Unilever followed closely, rising 1.67%, while ITC gained 1.17%. Kotak Bank and Asian Paints completed the top gainers’ list, climbing 0.78% and 0.67% respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra took the biggest hit, plummeting 3.41%, followed by Infosys dropping 1.78%. Powergrid and Sunpharma shares also dropped by 1.22% each.

HCLTech also witnessed selling pressure as it fell 1.10%.

“Apart from the tariffs the market will be looking forward to the April 9th monetary policy and after that the Q4 results. The US PCE inflation data expected today may give an indication of the inflation trend in the US. But more important than that would be the inflationary expectations from Trump tariffs,” said Vijayakumar.

“In this time of heightened uncertainty investors should remain calm and wait for the dust to settle down. FII buying will keep fairly valued largecaps resilient,” he added.