Volatility reined heavily over equity markets on Tuesday. Market benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, opened the session on a bright note, however, soon turned course and started erasing all the gains made in the previous session.
The BSE Sensex ended the day a little above 80,150, tanking more than 200 points, while the NSE Nifty50 closed trading at 24,580, falling 45 points.
On the 30-share Sensex, PowerGrid, NTPC, Tata Steel, HUL, and Reliance settled among the gainers. Meanwhile, the laggards were dominated by M&M, ICICI Bank, Asian Paint, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Tata Motors.
In the broader markets, indices majorly remained in green, with the Nifty Microcap 250 climbing 0.85 per cent. Sectorally, the FMCG index stood out with gains of 1.12 per cent, as the Private Bank index bled 0.70 per cent.
All Eyes On GST Council Meet
Investors remained cautious today, with traders keeping a close watch on the two-day GST Council meeting scheduled this week, where a significant tax rate restructuring is expected.
At 9:26 AM, the Sensex was up 90 points, or 0.11 per cent, at 80,454, while the Nifty 50 edged 15 points higher to 24,640, a gain of 0.06 per cent.
US President Donald Trump added to the uncertainty, calling America’s trade relationship with India “a totally one-sided disaster.” Further, tensions escalated after reports emerged on Tuesday stating that the American administration is weighing heavy tariffs of up to 200 per cent for pharma industry. Experts warned that if implemented, this would harm the drug supply chains and patients will have to suffer as medicine prices will shoot up.
Notably, US markets remained closed on Monday after ending last week lower, with the Dow down 0.2 per cent, Nasdaq falling 1.15 per cent, and S&P 500 sliding 0.64 per cent on Friday. Meanwhile, foreign investors continued to pare exposure, offloading Rs 1,430 crore worth of equities on Monday, according to provisional exchange data. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs), however, supported the market with net purchases of Rs 4,345 crore.
