Sensex falls 250 pts; Nifty slips below 10,400 level

TIL Desk/Business/Mumbai/ The BSE Sensex fell 252 points to drop below the 34,000 mark and NSE Nifty shed over 90 points in opening trade today on heavy losses in metal, auto, oil and Gas, banking and PSU stocks after US President Donald Trump fuelled concerns of a global trade war.

Asian markets too turned negative as the fallout from Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs continued to spook investors and dampen market sentiment here, brokers said. The 30-share barometer shed 251.56 points, or 0.73 per cent, to 33,795.38. The gauge had lost 398.81 in the previous three sessions.

The NSE Nifty was trading down by 90.40 points, or 0.86 per cent, at 10,367.95. All sectoral indices led by metal, auto, oil & gas banking and PSU stocks were trading in the negative terrain. The laggards were Yes Bank, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Coal India, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, HUL, Bajaj Auto, Dr Reddy’s HDFC, Asian Paint, Power Grid, M&M and SBI, falling up to 2.28 per cent.

Meanwhile, on a net basis, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth Rs 3.29 crore while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 241.85 crore on Thursday, provisional data released by the stock exchanges showed.