By Vivek Kumar M
(Reuters) -India’s benchmark indexes gave up early gains on Thursday as heavyweight financial stocks slipped amid persistent nervousness about U.S. trade policy.
The Nifty 50 fell 0.11% to 22,313.15 by 9:41 a.m. IST, while the BSE Sensex declined 0.12% to 73,642.63.
The broader midcap and smallcap indexes rose 0.7% and 1.3%, respectively. Indian shares are seeing some relief after sharp falls over the last five months. The benchmark indexes, which logged their biggest daily rise in a month on Wednesday, gained as much as 0.8% earlier in the session.
Slowing domestic growth and foreign outflows have hit stocks as have U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to impose reciprocal tariffs on trade partners, including India, from April 2.
However, “the recovery is unlikely to last beyond one or two days as we are not out of the storm yet,” said Vinit Bolinjkar, head of research at Ventura Securities.
Asian stocks gained after the White House said Trump will exempt automakers from his punishing 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico for one month as long as they comply with existing free trade rules. The MSCI Asia ex Japan rose 1%. [MKTS/GLOB]
India’s financials, which earlier rose about 0.5% on the central bank’s liquidity measures, fell 0.4%.
Gains in Reliance Industries and oil marketing companies prevented a larger fall in the benchmarks.
Reliance Industries, the second heaviest stock on the benchmark indexes, rose 1.2%, aided by positive commentary from several brokerages.
Jefferies reiterated a “buy” on the stock, saying it is currently at the cheapest valuation in the post-COVID period. Kotak Institutional Equities upgraded to “buy” from “neutral”, while JP Morgan said Reliance’s solid fundamentals across businesses were a positive.
Oil marketing companies and paintmakers rose, tracking the decline in crude oil prices. [O/R]
Zydus Lifesciences advanced more than 3% after its leukemia drug got the U.S. drug regulator’s approval.
(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
