By Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M
(Reuters) -India’s equity benchmarks inched lower on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump renewed his threat of harsh tariffs on goods from India over the country’s purchases of Russian oil.
The Nifty 50 fell 0.31% to 24,646.95 points and the BSE Sensex lost 0.36% to 80,737.93 as of 9:38 a.m. IST.
Trump on Monday threatened higher tariffs on imports from India, prompting New Delhi to call the move “unjustified” and pledge to safeguard its economic interests, further straining trade ties between the two nations.
Analysts said the ongoing trade tensions have dampened market sentiment, keeping benchmarks rangebound until there is clarity on U.S. tariffs. Ten of the 16 major sectors declined, while broader small-cap and mid-cap indexes were little changed.
Index heavyweights HDFC Bank fell 1.1% while Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank lost about 0.8% each.
“Markets have seen a subdued start as the fresh threat by the U.S. government to substantially raise tariffs on India weighed,” said Prashanth Tapse, senior vice president of research at Mehta Equities.
Trump’s threat to raise tariffs on India over Russian oil is a major risk, which could hit exports harder than expected, dent fiscal year 2026 growth and earnings, said three analysts.
“Domestic markets will likely continue to see bouts of intraday volatility and nervousness amongst the investors,” Tapse said.
Among individual stocks, private lender IndusInd Bank climbed 4.7% after naming industry veteran Rajiv Anand as its chief executive for a three-year term.
Siemens Energy rose 2% after posting a rise in the June quarter profit.
Butterfly Gandhimathi Appliances jumped 8% after its first-quarter profit more than doubled on a year-on-year basis.
On the flipside, Triveni Turbine <TRVT.NS dropped 7% after reporting a fall in the June quarter profit.
(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
