Indian equity indices opened Wednesday’s trading session on a lower note but swung back to green. The NSE Nifty 50 was up 40 points, or 0.17%, at 22,984, while the BSE Sensex rose 195 points, or 0.26%, at 76,162.36, led by banking stocks.
Bank Nifty was up 463 points or 0.94% at 49,550.45. The Nifty Midcap 100 was up 759 points, or 1.53%, at 50,510.85.
US President Donald Trump proposes to impose 25% tariffs on pharmaceuticals, automobiles, and semiconductor chips. The initiative’s goal is to enhance local manufacturing and tackle what Trump views as unfair trade practices.
“Despite largecap valuations turning fair and even attractive in segments like financials, the market continues to be weak. Seen in the context of new records being set by S&P 500 and Nasdaq, India’s underperformance is striking,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services. “News of Chinese authorities encouraging their top businessmen to invest is another headwind for India since Chinese stocks are cheap ( Hang Seng is trading at PE of 12.6) and may attract big inflows from FIIs, which means FIIs might continue selling in India.”
As Trump announced to levy import tariffs, the pharma companies’ stocks were trading in the red, sitting as the major losers in the Nifty 50. Dr Reddy’s Lab, Sun Pharma, Cipla, M&M, and TCS were the significant losers in the Nifty 50. On the flip side, BEL, NTPC, Tata Steel, Hindalco, and Tata Motors were the top gainers in the Nifty 50.
On February 19, the market breadth remained in favour of the bulls as out of 2,284 stocks traded, 1,568 stocks were trading in the green while 649 declined, as per the data on NSE.
Among the sectoral indices, the Nifty Pharma and Healthcare indices plunged to trade in the red. Nifty Pharma was down by 2.54% at 20,437.50.