New Delhi, April 7: Indian markets suffered a brutal blow on Monday morning, with investors losing over Rs 20.16 lakh crore in value as global trade war fears triggered a massive sell-off across equity indices.
The BSE Sensex nosedived 3,939.68 points, or 5.22%, to 71,425.01 in early trade—one of the steepest intraday falls in recent months. The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies slipped to Rs 3,83,18,592.93 crore (approximately USD 4.5 trillion), down from Rs 4,03,34,886.46 crore on Friday.
All 30 stocks in the Sensex pack were deep in the red. Tata Steel and Tata Motors led the decline with losses of over 10% each. Other major laggards included Larsen & Toubro, HCL Technologies, Adani Ports, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, TCS, Reliance Industries, and Mahindra & Mahindra.
The sell-off mirrored turmoil across global markets. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index tanked more than 11%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 7%, the Shanghai Composite slid nearly 7%, and South Korea’s Kospi fell over 5%.
US markets had also closed sharply lower on Friday, with the S&P 500 down 5.97%, Nasdaq falling 5.82%, and the Dow Jones tumbling 5.50%.
“Globally, markets are going through heightened volatility caused by extreme uncertainty,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
“No one has a clue about how this turbulence caused by Trump’s tariffs will evolve. Wait and watch would be the best strategy in this turbulent phase of the market.”
