Stock markets decline in early trade as Trump slaps additional 25% tariff

New Delhi: Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty declined in early trade on Thursday as US President Donald Trump slapped an additional 25 percent duty -- doubling it to 50 percent -- on Indian goods over New Delhi's continued imports of Russian oil.

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The move that is likely to hit sectors such as textiles, marine and leather exports hard was slammed by India as "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable". With this action singling out New Delhi for the Russian oil imports, India will attract the highest US tariff of 50 percent along with Brazil.

The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 335.71 points to 80,208.28 in early trade. The 50-share NSE Nifty declined 114.15 points to 24,460.05.

From the Sensex firms, Adani Ports, Tata Motors, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Eternal, Tata Steel and NTPC were among the laggards.

However, Trent, Titan, Sun Pharma and ITC were among the gainers.

In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi, Japan's Nikkei 225 index, Shanghai's SSE Composite index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng quoted in positive territory.

The US markets ended higher on Wednesday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 4,999.10 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 1 percent to USD 67.56 a barrel.

On Wednesday, the 30-share BSE Sensex fell 166.26 points or 0.21 percent to settle at 80,543.99. The Nifty dipped 75.35 points or 0.31 percent to close at 24,574.20.

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