The Sensex and Nifty crashed in opening trade amid rout in global markets over fears of revival of trade wars after US President Donald Trump announced $60 billion of tariffs on Chinese imports. The tariffs, which the US trade representatives will publish within 15 days, will target 1,300 lines of Chinese goods, everything from shoes and clothing to electronics.

China hit back in the trade war announcing plans for reciprocal tariffs on $3 billion imports from the US, including products from steel to pork. China also plans to take legal action against the US under the World Trade Organization framework.

The global markets were the biggest casualty of the US-China trade steps with Dow closing 724 points lower to 23,957 level. Asian markets too were trading in the red.

At home while the Sensex fell 442 points to 32,563 level, the Nifty was down 142 points to 9,972 level. The Nifty fell below 10,000 level for the first time since October 12, 2017. The index has fallen nearly 4 percent to 9,988.90 since January 1 after touching a high of 11,171.55 on January 29.

On the Sensex, all 30 stocks were trading in the red with YES Bank (3.69%), Tata Steel (3.37%), and ICICI Bank (3.02%) were the top losers.

Mid caps and small caps stocks on BSE tumbled 1.83% and 1.98 percent, respectively.

Banking stocks suffered the most with BSE bankex crashing 522 points or 1.93% among the BSE sectoral indices.
BSE Capital goods index too fell 339 points to 17,992 level. Market breadth was negative with 164 stocks rising against 1776 stocks falling on BSE.

The India VIX index rose 5.51%, signalling heightened volatility in stock market.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) continued selling on domestic bourses. On a net basis, they sold shares worth Rs 1,065.99 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) made purchases to the tune of Rs 1,127.78 crore on Friday, provisional data showed.

On Thursday, the Sensex fell 130 points to 33,006, Nifty closed 40 points lower at 10,114 level. Trade war fears intensified on reports that US president Donald Trump plans to announce about $50 billion of tariffs against China over intellectual-property violations.

Global markets

The fear rippled into Asia, where shares tumbled in early trading. By late morning in Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 3.5 percent at 20,827.92. South Korea’s Kospi tumbled 2.3 percent to 2,438.03. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 3.2 percent to 30,090.32 and the Shanghai Composite in mainland China sank 2.7 percent to 3,169.19. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 skidded 1.9 percent to 5,824.50.

On Thursday, US markets sank. The S&P 500 index skidded 2.5 percent to 2,643.69. The Dow Jones industrial average sank 2.9 percent to 23,957.89. The Nasdaq composite gave up 2.4 percent to 7,166.68.