Markets slump in early trade, tracking weak Asian peers amid tariffs worries

New Delhi: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty tumbled in early trade on Monday tracking weak Asian markets amid concerns over US President Donald Trump imposing tariffs on some of its trading partners.

The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex tumbled 731.91 points to 76,774.05 in early trade. The NSE Nifty slumped 243 points to 23,239.15.

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From the 30-share blue-chip pack, Larsen & Toubro, NTPC, Tata Steel, Power Grid, Tata Motors, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and Tata Consultancy Services were among the major laggards.

Titan, Maruti, Nestle and Bajaj Finserv were among the gainers.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, and Hong Kong were trading sharply lower.

US markets ended lower on Friday.

"Despite an excellent Budget the market will be under pressure from the Trump tariffs and the heightened global uncertainty these 'initial round of tariffs' has triggered. Now we don’t know how this will pan out. For now, India is not affected. Therefore, the impact on the Indian market will be less.

"But the spike in the dollar index to above 109.6 will trigger more selling by FIIs putting the market under pressure," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said.

The 25 percent tariffs on most imports from Canada and Mexico and 10 percent tariffs on goods from China are to take effect from Tuesday.

The domestic equity markets were open on Saturday due to the presentation of the Union Budget.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 1,327.09 crore on Saturday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.70 percent to USD 76.20 a barrel.

"Although global factors will continue to dominate the mood, local investors will also be looking forward to this week's RBI monetary policy announcement," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

In a day market with heavy volatility, the 30-share BSE benchmark eked out a marginal gain of 5.39 points or 0.01 percent to settle at 77,505.96 on Saturday. The Nifty dipped 26.25 points or 0.11 percent to settle at 23,482.15.

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