India’s benchmark indexes are set to open unchanged on Thursday amid caution due to uncertainty over U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff policies and worries around moderating corporate earnings.
The GIFT Nifty futures were trading at 23,135, as of 7:57 a.m. IST, indicating that the blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 will open near Wednesday’s close of 23,155.35.
Other Asian markets traded flat as Trump threatened to hit the European Union with trade barriers and said his administration was discussing a 10% punitive duty on Chinese imports, heightening fears of a trade conflict.
“The initial signal of high tariffs has jolted investor sentiment, dampening global growth prospects and heightening risk aversion in emerging market equities,” said Arsh Mogre, economist at PL Capital.
Trump’s return to the White House raised worries over the imposition of tariffs on India, a country he said has high tariffs on U.S. products and indicated that he was in favour of reciprocating them.
The uncertainty over policy framework under Trump and worries of fewer rate cuts by the Federal Reserve prompted foreign portfolio investors (FPI) to offload Indian stocks and bonds worth about $7.75 billion in January so far.
Indian shares set for muted start ahead of Trump’s second presidency
The Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex added about 0.6% each on Wednesday, led by gains in private lender HDFC Bank after its quarterly results and a rise in IT stocks after Trump laid out plans for investments in AI infrastructure.
The broader, more domestically-focused smallcaps and midcaps lost about 1.6% each on fears of moderate corporate earnings growth and elevated valuations compared to benchmark indexes.
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