Sensex, Nifty End Choppy Session Little Changed On Tariff Concerns
(RTTNews) - Indian shares ended a choppy session on a flat note Tuesday after U.S. President Trump said he will announce tariffs on automobiles, aluminum and pharmaceuticals in the near future.
Amid ongoing trade talks with the U.S., India is contemplating broader tariff reforms to reduce barriers uniformly, but these discussions remain in preliminary stages, media reports said.
Also, in a fresh geopolitical challenge to India's oil import strategy, Trump has threatened to impose 25 percent "secondary tariffs" on countries importing Venezuelan oil, including India and China, starting 2 April.
Analysts said the move could severely impact India's energy security and crude procurement strategy.
The benchmark S&P/BSE Sensex hit an intraday high of 78,741 before giving up most of the gains to end the session up 32.81 points at 78,017.19.
The broader NSE Nifty index closed up 10.30 points at 23,668.65 after reaching a high of 23,869 earlier.
The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes fell 1.1 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively. The market breadth was negative on the BSE, with 2,980 shares declining while 1,087 shares rose and 110 shares ended unchanged.
Among the prominent decliners, Zomato slumped 5.8 percent and IndusInd Bank lost 4.8 percent.
Healthcare stocks fell across the board, with Sun Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma, Lupin and Dr Reddy's Laboratories declining 1-2 percent on tariff worries.
Among the prominent gainers, Axis Bank, Bajaj FinServ, Infosys and UltraTech Cement climbed 2-3 percent.
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