Market Opening Bell: Trade tensions dent sentiment; NIFTY50 trades below 25,600, Sensex slides 725 points; IT, metal stocks slip

The Indian stock market opened lower on Monday, June 2, following its Asian peers amid tariff tensions. On May 30, US President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on imported steel and aluminium.

The broader market was trading mixed in the early session, with the Nifty Midcap 100 rising 0.13% while the Nifty Smallcap 100 index lost 0.09%.

Among sectors, Nifty IT was the top loser, declining 1.22%. Nifty Metal (-0.88%), Nifty Consumer Durables (-0.63%) and Nifty Media (-0.52%) were the other laggards.

Globally, the Asian stocks were trading lower on Monday following US-China trade tensions.

The Nikkei 225 tumbled 1.52% to the 37,387.75 level, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng and South Korea's KOSPI fell 2.61% and 0.22%, respectively.

The US stocks closed mixed last week as Trump slammed China before sounding upbeat about reaching a trade deal.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 54.34 points, or 0.13%, to 42,270.07. The S&P 500 declined 0.48 points, or 0.01%, at 5,911.69, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 62.11 points, or 0.32%, to close at 19,113.77.

As many as 2,534 stocks traded on the NSE during the early session, among which 1,456 stocks were trading negative, 994 advanced and only 84 shares remained unchanged.

This indicated that the market breadth was in favour of negative.

As many as 24 stocks hit their one-year low in the early trade, while 36 stocks touched their 52-week high.

Further, 61 stocks hit their lower circuits, while 57 hit their upper circuits.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was trading 5.69% higher at 16.99 levels.

Shriram Finance led the pack of losing stocks, tumbling 2.01% followed by HDFC Bank (-1.87%), Bajaj Auto (-1.81%), HCL Technologies (-1.73%) and Reliance Industries (-1.72%).

On the other hand, Apollo Hospitals (2.51%), Hindustan Unilever (0.97%), Bharat Electronics (0.90%), Adani Ports (0.84%) and Mahindra & Mahindra (0.75%) were the top gainers during the opening session.