MUMBAI: The sensex closed 1,235 points or 1.6% lower at 75,838 points — the lowest level since June — in a volatile session as investors on Dalal Street were left guessing about US President Donald Trump’s moves that could hurt India’s economic interests. The not-so-encouraging results from most of the leading companies and fears of a rate hike by the Bank of Japan in its meeting on Friday also affected investor sentiment, market players said.
Foreign funds were major sellers on Tuesday with a net outflow of Rs 5,920 crore, BSE data showed. So far in Jan, foreign portfolio investors have net sold stocks worth nearly Rs 57,000 crore, combined data from BSE and NSDL showed.
The day’s session saw the sensex open about 200 points up at 77,262 but quickly lost over 700 points to a low of 76,261 points and then rallied over 950 points to a high of 77,337 points. Later, selling bouts pulled the index down to an intraday low of 75,642 points to finally settle near the day’s low level. Nifty too followed a similar path to close at 23,025 points, down 320 points or 1.4%. The day’s session left investors poorer by Rs 7.3 lakh crore with BSE’s market capitalisation now at 432.8 lakh crore.

According to Vinod Nair of Geojit Financial Services, domestic markets experienced a significant decline on Tuesday, accompanied by high volatility on the back of Trump’s announcement of trade tariffs on neighbouring countries on his inauguration day. This added uncertainty to global markets. The weak recovery in the ongoing (third quarter) earnings announcements, coupled with a depreciating rupee are likely to prompt further outflows by foreign funds, Nair said.
Investors globally are closely watching what the new US President does. “Trump’s remarks targeting BRICS nations, reiterating his intention to impose 100% tariffs on countries reducing their reliance on the US dollar for global trade, induced negative sentiments in the Indian market,” said Siddhartha Khemka of Motilal Oswal Financial Services. “Global markets are also intimidated by expectation of an interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan in its upcoming decision on Friday which could impact borrowing costs globally. We expect markets to remain under pressure in the near term amid mixed quarterly earnings and heavy FPI selling.”
Meanwhile, Jio Financial said it has incorporated Jio Blackrock Broking to enter the stock broking space.