Indian stocks linger around 6-week low on trade deal jitters, foreign outflows

Indian shares were muted in early trades on Tuesday, with benchmark indexes near six-week lows, as concerns over a delay in signing a trade deal with the United States and sustained foreign outflows hurt demand.

The Nifty 50 was up 0.09% at 24,703 points and the BSE Sensex added 0.04% to 80,924.62, as of 9:34 a.m. IST. The indexes hit their lowest since June 13 earlier in the session.

Ten of the 16 major sectors rose, but heavyweight financials and information technology were down 0.2% and 0.5%, respectively.

The broader mid-cap and small-caps were little changed.

“There are more headwinds than tailwinds for now. The major issue weighing on markets is that the expected trade deal between India and the U.S. has not happened so far,” said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments.

Negotiations between India and the United States remained deadlocked over tariff cuts on agriculture and dairy products, dimming hopes of a trade deal ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s August 1 deadline, Reuters reported last week, citing two Indian government sources.

Trump said Monday that most trading partners who do not negotiate separate deals would soon face tariffs of 15% to 20% on their exports to the U.S., well above the broad 10% tariff he imposed in April.

Indian shares dragged down by Kotak Mahindra Bank, TCS; trade deal delay weighs

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors sold Indian shares worth 60.81 billion rupees ($700.92 million) on Monday, as per provisional data, marking their biggest selling in India since May 30.

Among stocks, IndusInd Bank rose about 1% after the private lender swung back to profit in the first quarter, but concerns over weak return on asset outlook and worsened asset quality capped gains.

Solar module maker Waaree Energies jumped about 5% and was the top midcap gainer after it posted higher quarterly revenue and profit, while Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders was the top midcap loser due to a decline in profit.