The National Stock Exchange’s Nifty 50 on Friday closed below 10,000 points for the first time since October as fears of a trade war between the United States and China gripped the global markets. The Dow Jones had ended Thursday with massive losses, and Asian markets took cues on Friday morning and suffered losses.
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump announced plans to impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of imports from China. Within hours, China threatened with its own duties on US products, and urged Trump to be “prudent” and “avoid dragging bilateral trade relations to a dangerous place”.
The BSE Sensex, too, was affected by fears of a US-China trade war, falling below 32,000 points on Friday morning before ending 409.73 points down at 32,596.54. The Nifty 50 ended 116.70 points down at 9,998.05.
The rupee, however, recovered from the losses it made on Friday morning and closed one-week stronger against the US dollar. The Indian currency ended at 65.01 to the greenback, up 0.16% from Thursday’s close of 65.11.
Only 11 Nifty 50 stocks rose on Friday, including HCL Tech, Bharti Infratel, Adani Ports, Zee Entertainment and Power Grid Corp. Vendata, Hindalco, Axis Bank, Yes Bank and Lupin Pharmaceuticals were the worst performers.
On the Sensex, all stocks except those of Adani Ports, Infosys, Power Grid Corporation of India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Coal India and Asian Paints declined. Yes Bank, Axis Bank, the State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel and Tata Motors were the biggest losers.
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