Stock market: Sensex falls 300 pts, Nifty below 24,800; Sun Pharma tanks 5%

Domestic equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty opened lower on Friday, extending their slide to a sixth straight session after US President Donald Trump unveiled steep import tariffs. Investors are also cautious about the persistent foreign institutional investor (FII) outflows, weighing further on sentiment.

The new measures include a 100 per cent duty on branded pharmaceutical products, a 50 per cent levy on kitchen cabinets, 30 per cent on upholstered furniture, and 25 per cent on heavy trucks.

At 9:17 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 224.82 points, or 0.28 per cent, lower at 80,934.86, after slipping nearly 300 points in early trade. The NSE Nifty50 declined 64.10 points, or 0.26 per cent, to 24,826.75, having earlier hit a day’s low of 24,788.

Among Sensex stocks, Sun Pharma led losers, declining 4.96 per cent to Rs 1,547.25.  Asian Paints shares fell 1 per cent. Other losers included Bajaj Finance (down 0.97 per cent), Power Grid (down 0.83 per cent) and HCL Tech (down 0.80 per cent).

Wall Street stocks closed lower overnight as all three major US benchmarks ended in the red. The S&P 500 eased 0.50 per cent to 6,604.72, the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.50 per cent to 22,384.70, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.38 per cent to close at 45,947.32.

Asian equities were under pressure on Friday, with key indices slipping into the red. Japan’s Nikkei 225 eased 0.27 per cent to 45,629.79, South Korea’s KOSPI tumbled 2.36 per cent to 3,389.32, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined 0.81 per cent to 26,269.19.

On Thursday, the Sensex was down 555.95 points, or 0.68 per cent, to close at 81,159.68, while the Nifty50 dropped 166.05 points, or 0.66 per cent, to settle at 24,890.85.

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments, said US President Trump’s tariff tantrums are back, this time targeting patented and branded drugs with fresh levies. “India, being an exporter of generic drugs is unlikely to be impacted by this. But perhaps the president’s next target can be the generic drugs. This decision may have a sentimental impact on pharmaceutical stocks,” he said.

“Trump is now moving from country-specific tariffs to product-specific tariffs. Higher tariffs on trucks, upholstered furniture etc. indicates that the Trump administration’s weaponisation of tariffs may continue till US inflation spikes forcing a rethink of this policy. The sustained FII selling may keep the market under pressure. Investors can utilise dips to slowly accumulate high quality stocks, particularly those that are driven by domestic consumption," Vijayakumar said.