Sensex Drops 271 Points In Muted Session; Nifty Ends Below 24,950
(RTTNews) - Indian shares fell modestly on Monday, with IT stocks leading losses after Moody's downgraded the U.S. credit rating by one notch to Aa1 from Aaa, citing rising levels of government debt and interest payments.
The rating agency warned it expects federal deficits to widen to almost nine percent of economic output by 2035, up from 6.4 percent last year.
Meanwhile, China has slapped duties of up to 75 percent on imports of plastics from the U.S., EU, Taiwan and Japan, signaling that trade tensions remain far from resolved.
Elsewhere, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNN News on Sunday that tariff rates will soon return to a "reciprocal" level if countries don't reach trade agreements during the 90-day pause.
"President Trump has put them on notice that if you do not negotiate in good faith, you will ratchet back up to your April 2 level," Bessent said.
The benchmark S&P/BSE Sensex dropped 271 points, or 0.33 percent, to 82,059.42, tracking weak cues from global markets and a decline in U.S. stock futures.
The broader NSE Nifty index closed down 74 points, or 0.3 percent, at 24,945.45 while the BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes rose 0.3 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively. Th market breadth was positive on the BSE, with 2,522 shares rising while 1,573 shares declined and 178 shares closed unchanged.
Among the prominent decliners, Eternal lost 3 percent and Infosys shed nearly 2 percent while Reliance Industries, Asian Paints, Tech Mahindra and TCS all fell around 1 percent.
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