Sensex, Nifty witness selling pressure amid Trump's fresh tariff threats

Indian equity benchmarks made a gap-down opening and soon extended their losses on Tuesday tracking overnight losses on Wall Street as well as weakness in Asian counterparts, as traders continue to be cautious and are not willing to take any significant positions ahead of monetary policy announcement by the US Fed. Traders were also worried amid reports that the US President Donald Trump indicated an additional 25 per cent tariff on rice imports into the United States. Sensex and Nifty are trading deeply in red in early deals on account of board-based selling in all the sector indices led by Consumer Durables, Capital Goods and Utilities. Persistent selling by FPIs also weighted on domestic sentiments. Foreign portfolio investors recorded net sales of equities worth Rs 656.59 crore on Monday.

Traders were concerned as Ramesh Chand, member of government think tank Niti Aayog, said that India's agriculture sector growth is estimated to be lower at 4 per cent in the 2025-26 financial year compared to the rate of 4.6 per cent recorded in the previous fiscal. On the sectoral front, telecom stocks were in focus as Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) rejected the Department of Telecom's view, suggesting a 5 per cent annual spectrum fee to be charged from satcom (satellite communications) players instead of 4 per cent, and let go of a Rs 500 fee per connection in urban areas.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 84475.73, down by 626.96 points or 0.74% after trading in a range of 84445.43 and 84889.67. There were 2 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 1.17%, while Small cap index was down by 1.40%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables down by 1.41%, Capital Goods down by 1.30%, Utilities down by 1.30%, IT down by 1.29% and Industrials down by 1.25%, while there was no gainer on the BSE sectoral front.

The only gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 0.27% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.02%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 3.69%, Trent down by 2.04%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.49%, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles down by 1.47% and TCS down by 1.35% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, member of government think tank Niti Aayog, Ramesh Chand has said that India's agriculture sector growth is likely to be lower at 4 per cent in the financial year 2025-26 (FY26) compared to the rate of 4.6 per cent recorded in the previous fiscal. He added that it is difficult to attribute reasons for lower growth at this point of time. He noted that the agri growth keeps fluctuating as base effect is low. The flood impact in Punjab is only in a limited area, and that is unlikely to bring down the state's growth.

He highlighted that ‘Looking at the first half of FY 2025-26 growth figures for agriculture sector, the second half will be normal’. Farm growth was estimated at 3.7 per cent in the first quarter and 3.5 per cent in the second quarter of the current fiscal year. In 2024-25, overall farm growth reached 4.63 per cent. He said India's agricultural growth has reached a historic high of 4.6 per cent over the past decade, surpassing China's farm sector growth rate. However, he noted that the country needs to achieve a 5 per cent growth in agriculture to support its goal of becoming a developed nation. 

He said India could learn from China's intensive farming methods, noting that Chinese farmers use more than twice the fertilizer India does while managing to avoid adverse environmental consequences. He identified several growth drivers, including increasing crop intensity, expanding irrigation, and narrowing yield gaps between states. Some states achieve corn yields of 70 quintals per hectare while others manage only 25 quintals. He said with a 5 per cent growth, India could triple its agricultural GDP faster than the 24-25 years needed at current rates, and added that this would help achieve the broader goal of making India a $30-trillion economy.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25760.10, down by 200.45 points or 0.77% after trading in a range of 25754.65 and 25890.95. There were 2 stocks advancing against 48 stocks declining on the index.

The only gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 0.21% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.03%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 3.63%, Trent down by 1.90%, JIO Financial Services down by 1.83%, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles down by 1.54% and Hindalco down by 1.48% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 213.36 points or 0.84% to 25,552.00, Taiwan Weighted lost 96.36 points or 0.34% to 28,207.42, Jakarta Composite fell 31.49 points or 0.36% to 8,679.21, KOSPI dropped 17.99 points or 0.43% to 4,136.86 and Shanghai Composite weakened 5.25 points or 0.13% to 3,918.83. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 surged 80.06 points or 0.16% to 50,662.00 and Straits Times was up by 11.9 points or 0.26% to 4,518.98.