Indian Stock Market Today: Domestic benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty, ended marginally lower in a volatile session on Thursday, following US President Donald Trump’s announcement to slap a 25 per cent tariff on goods imported from India, starting August 1, along with an unspecified penalty for importing energy and defence goods from Russia.
The BSE’s 30-share Sensex declined 0.36 per cent, or 296.28 points, to close at 81,185.58. The broader Nifty slipped 0.35 per cent, or 86.7 points, to end at 24,768.35. The Sensex opened 0.96 per cent down, while the Nifty fell 0.86 per cent at the opening.
After a weak start, both indices pared their losses, with the Sensex rising 321.41 points, or 0.39 per cent, to hit a day’s high of 81,803.27, and the Nifty gaining 101.45 points, or 0.41 per cent to reach a peak of 24,956.5 during the intraday trades. However, the indices failed to sustain their gains due to high selling pressure in the final hour and ended in the red.
Following a turbulent start driven by fresh tariff threats, the Indian market started on a pessimistic note. However, domestic market attempted a strong recovery but by the end of the day it closed with marginal losses, on a monthly expiry day,” said Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Investments Ltd.
Analysts believe that even though the tariff rate announced by US President Trump on India is higher than those in trade deals with other countries, there is a strong probability that the final rate will come down from 25 per cent during the negotiations which are likely to start in mid-August.
The 25 per cent (tariff rate) is not very different from the 26 per cent announced in April. We are still in the stage of discussion and while the 25 per cent rate would be effective from August 1, there is, it appears, room for negotiation,” said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist, Bank of Baroda.
Economists see an impact of around 0.2 per cent to 0.35 per cent on India’s GDP growth during FY2026 due to the elevated tariff rate. The sectors that are likely to take a hit are gems and jewellery, clothing/ textiles and phones.
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We maintain our FY26 GDP growth forecast at 6.2 per cent y-o-y, but flag a downside risk of ~0.2 percentage points,” according to a report by Nomura. The RBI has projected FY26 GDP growth at 6.5 per cent.
Barring Nifty FMCG and Nifty IT, all sectoral indices ended in the negative territory. Among the broader market indices, Nifty Midcap 100 fell 0.93 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 declined 1.05 per cent.
The US Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates unchanged at 4.25-4.5 per cent on Wednesday, and continuous selling by foreign investors also weighed on investor sentiment.
The Nifty companies that lost the most included Adani Enterprises (4.06 per cent), Tata Steel (2.52 per cent), Sun Pharmaceutical (1.95 per cent), Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (1.93 per cent) and NTPC (1.51 per cent).
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