Domestic equity benchmarks made a negative start to the trading week on Monday, July 14, with the Sensex falling as much as 150 points shortly and the Nifty slipping between the 25,100 mark shortly after the opening bell. Selling pressure in IT and financial services stocks weighed on the market. Equities in other major Asian markets largely leaned towards the red amid persistent concerns about trade tariffs. Investors awaited more corporate earnings for India Inc for domestic cues after Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) kicked off a new results season on Dalal Street last week.

Both main indices continued to fall after the first few minutes of trade. At 9:22 am, the Senesx was down 193.7 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 82,306.8 while the Nifty50 was down 67.8 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 25,082.1. 

Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, HCLTech, Tata Motors, TCS, HDFC Life and Wipro, trading between 0.7 per cent and 1.7 per cent lower, were the worst hit among the 22 losers in the Nifty50 basket. 

On the other hand, Sun Pharma, Coal India, Grasim, Hero MotoCorp and PowerGrid, rising up to 0.9 per cent, were the top blue-chip gainers in the 50-scrip pack. 

Weakness in Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance and HDFC Bank shares weighed on both benchmarks the most. 

From Nikkei 225 to Dow, how major Asian markets and Wall Street fared

Major Asian markets were in the red early on Monday, with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan trading 0.1 per cent lower. While Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.4 per cent, China’s Shanghai Composite was up 0.4 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was trading flat while Taiwan’s TWSE Capitalization Weighted Stock Index (TAIEX) was down 0.5 per cent. 

Globally, investors remained on edge amid the latest round of trade tariff-related warnings from the US.

On Saturday, US President Donald Trump announced his intent to impose a 30 per cent duty on most imports from the European Union and Mexico with effect from August 1. The EU said it would extend a suspension of countermeasures to US tariffs until early August and continue to press for a negotiated settlement.

The latest in the US-triggered tariff war comes as investors have become largely inured to Trump’s tariff policy methods.

US stock market fell on Friday, with Meta weighing on the S&P 500 blue-chip index, after Trump intensified his tariff offensive against Canada. On Thursday, he said the US would impose a 35 per cent duty on imports next month and planned to impose blanket tariffs of 15 per cent or 20 per cent on most other trading partners.

The Dow Jones fell 279.1 points while the S&P 500 gave up 20.7 points, or 0.3 per cent, to end at 6,259.8 and the tech stocks-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 45.1 points, or 0.2 per cent, to settle at 20,585.5.

Among broader indices, the Russell 2000 plunged 1.3 per cent to end at 2,234.8.