Bourses maintain gains amid US’ 90 days pause on reciprocal tariffs

Indian bourses continued to trade higher in late afternoon session after US president Trump announced a 90-day pause on new ‘reciprocal tariffs’ on most countries including India to allow rooms for negotiations. During the 90-day period, the US will only levy 10% universal tariffs on all its trading partners except China. Besides, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal in his meeting with industry and exporters on April 9 has assured that India is working on the ‘right mix and right balance’ in its proposed trade agreement with the US which raised optimism about India-US bilateral trade agreement uplifting the investor sentiments. However, the gains were capped as the traders remained cautious amid US-China trade tension after China announced 125% tariffs on US goods in retaliation to US’ recent tariffs in Chinese goods.

On the global front, Asian equity markets are trading mixed. European equity markets were trading lower, changing course after previous session's up move, as investors are worried that the escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and China could significantly impede global economic growth.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 75011.37, up by 1164.22 points or 1.58% after trading in a range of 74762.84 and 75467.33. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index up by 1.66%, while Small cap index was up by 2.77%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 4.13%, Basic Materials up by 3.26%, Consumer Durables up by 2.67%, Utilities up by 2.47% and Energy up by 2.39%, while there were no losers on BSE sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 4.25%, Power Grid Corporation up by 2.98%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.92%, NTPC up by 2.87% and Bajaj Finserv up by 2.67%. On the flip side, TCS down by 0.86%, Asian Paints down by 0.78% and Infosys down by 0.31% were the few losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest quarterly ‘Services and Infrastructure Outlook Survey for Q4:2024-25’ has stated that services firms expect improvement in overall business situation and turnover in Q1:2025-26. The survey report also noted that the job landscape is also expected to expand but cost pressures are likely to increase in Q1:2025-26. 

For Q2:2025-26 and Q3:2025-26, services firms expect sequential improvement in their turnover and overall business situation. Respondents remain optimistic on employment conditions till Q3:2025-26. Input cost pressures are likely to persist in near term and consequently selling prices are also expected to remain at an elevated level.

Further, the survey report said that infrastructure firms expressed improvement in overall business situation and their turnover and reported higher cost pressures with concomitant rise in selling prices and profit margins in Q4:2024-25 vis-a-vis the previous quarter. Infra firms anticipate further rise in cost pressures in Q1:2025-26 with improved growth in selling prices and profit margins.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22787.35, up by 388.20 points or 1.73% after trading in a range of 22695.40 and 22923.90. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 6.43%, JSW Steel up by 4.42%, Coal India up by 4.39%, Tata Steel up by 4.38% and ONGC up by 3.84%. On the flip side, TCS down by 0.88%, Asian Paints down by 0.75%, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise down by 0.50% and Infosys down by 0.31% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Hang Seng advanced 232.91 points or 1.11% to 20,914.69, Jakarta Composite gained 15.26 points or 0.24% to 6,269.28, Shanghai Composite strengthened 14.59 points or 0.45% to 3,238.23 and Taiwan Weighted added 528.74 points or 2.71% to 19,528.77, while KOSPI dropped 12.34 points or 0.51% to 2,432.72, Nikkei 225 slipped 1023.42 points or 3.05% to 33,585.58 and Straits Times fell 75.94 points or 2.12% to 3,501.89.

European markets were trading lower; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 45.1 points or 0.57% to 7,868.15, France’s CAC fell 94.58 points or 1.33% to 7,031.44 and Germany’s DAX lost 373.89 points or 1.82% to 20,188.84.