By Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran
(Reuters) -India’s benchmark equity indexes fell for the second consecutive week as investors grappled with uncertainty triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade policy flip-flops.
Still, the market pared most of its weekly losses after Trump’s 90-day pause on hefty “retaliatory” tariffs on countries, excluding China, led to a rebound.
The blue-chip Nifty 50 index rose 1.92% to close at 22,828.55 on Friday, while the BSE Sensex gained 1.77% to 75,157.26. Both the indexes closed the week 0.3% lower.
Investors continue to remain on edge as the trade war between the United States and China escalates. Beijing has increased its tariffs on U.S. imports to 125%, hitting back against Trump’s decision to hike duties on Chinese goods to 145%.
“One thing being understood (by the market) is that you have to deal with an uncertain environment as far as policies and rates are concerned for an extended period of time,” said Dharmesh Kant, head of equity research at Cholamandalam Securities.
“I think we are going to see volatile moves of plus or minus 5% to 7% (for the benchmark Nifty 50).”
Nine of the 13 major sectors fell during the week, with real estate and metals leading the losses, down 4% and 2.9%, respectively.
Heavyweight financials and information technology shares declined 0.9% and 2.3%, respectively, posting their second straight weekly declines.
IT stocks fell on concerns that the trade war could lead to a recession in the world’s largest economy. The U.S. is a key market for IT firms.
Tata Consultancy Services fell 0.5% on the day, underperforming both the benchmark and IT indexes, after weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings.
The broader midcaps fell 0.3%, logging their third week of losses, while smallcaps rose 0.1%.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedta Bhattacharjee, Eileen Soreng, Janane Venkatraman and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
