Market Wrap, April 1: Indices tumble on tariff woes; SENSEX plunges 1390 pts, NIFTY50 declines 1.5%, IT stocks crash

The Indian stock market on the first day of the financial year 2025-26 closed lower by 1.5% amid broad selling in the IT sector as market investors remained jittery ahead of US President Donald Trump’s April 2 tariff announcements.

President Donald Trump plans to roll out a set of reciprocal tariffs on April 2, which he says will be "Liberation Day" for the US.

At close on Tuesday, April 1, the S&P BSE SENSEX stood at 76,024.51, plunging 1,390.41 points, or 1.80%, while the NSE's NIFTY50 index ended at 23,165.70, tanking 353.65 points, or 1.50%.

The NIFTY IT was one of the biggest losing sectors, declining 2.45%. Persistent Systems, Coforge, HCL Technologies, and Infosys were among the biggest losing scripts in the sector.

However, the market breadth remained in favour of positives, as 1,955 stocks advanced at the end of the session out of 2,994 stocks traded.

The broader market also ended the session in red.

The market sentiment was also hit on rising gold prices. The yellow metal’s price on Tuesday touched an all-time high of ₹91,400 per 10 grams in futures trade in line with firm global trends.

Currency and bond markets are closed on Tuesday for the annual account closing of banks.

Globally, the US markets closed in the green on Monday following a volatile session. The volatility heightened as investors navigated through economic growth concerns amid escalated trade tensions.

Though the S&P 500 settled at the 5,611.85 level, gaining 30.91 points, or 0.55%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 417.86 points, or 1%, to 42,001.76, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 23.70 points, or 0.14%, to 17,299.29.

Following this, Asian shares were mostly higher. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was virtually unchanged at 35,624.48. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng rose 0.2% to 23,173.75, while the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.4% to 3,348.44.

South Korea's Kospi jumped 1.6% to 2,525.44, while the S&P/ASX 200 surged 1% to 7,925.20. Taiwan's Taiex shot up 2.8%, while the Sensex in India lost 0.2%. Bangkok's SET advanced 1.1%.

As many as 2,994 stocks traded on the NSE on Tuesday. Out of this, 1,955 advanced, and only 960 stocks declined, while 79 scripts remained unchanged.

A total of 49 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 113 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 279 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 46 touched their lower circuit bands on Tuesday.

Market capitalisation of NSE-listed firms stood at ₹407.28 lakh crore.

Further, the volatility index India VIX gained 8.37% to 13.78 levels.

The broader market remained under pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 settled 0.86% lower at the 51,229.60 level, while Nifty Smallcap 100 slipped 0.70% to the 15,982.95 level.

Except for Nifty Media (2.24%) and Nifty Oil and Gas (0.08%), all the other sectoral gauges ended negative.

Nifty Realty (-3.11%), Nifty Consumer Durables (-2.50%), Nifty IT (-2.45%), Nifty Midsmall Healthcare (-1.99%) and Nifty Financial Services 25/50 (-1.89%) were among the biggest losing sectors.

On the NIFTY50 index, HCL Technologies, Bharat Electronics, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC Bank and Hindalco were the biggest laggards, tumbling as much as 3.64%.

On the other hand, IndusInd Bank, Trent, Jio Financial Services, Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp were the most gaining scrips, rising as much as 5.06% on the 50-share index.

Indus Towers shares also surged in the trade. The stock rose as much as 7.95% to ₹360.90 on the NSE.

The private lender’s total business grew 14.08% to ₹1.86 lakh crore as of March 31, 2025, as compared to ₹1.63 lakh crore the same time last year.