By Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M
(Reuters) -India’s benchmark indexes fell on the last trading session of the financial year as investors were cautious ahead of the U.S. reciprocal tariffs that are expected next week.
The NSE Nifty 50 closed 0.31% lower at 23,519.35 on Friday, while the BSE Sensex fell 0.25% to 77,414.92. The Nifty rose 6.3% in March, snapping a record five-month losing streak.
U.S. President Donald Trump is due to announce reciprocal tariffs on several trading partners, including India, on April 2.
Indian benchmarks about rose about 5% in the fiscal year.
Since the benchmark valuations are close to the long-term averages, the downside appears limited, but the recovery will be gradual given the volatility due to tariff uncertainties, said Apurva Sheth, head of market perspectives and research at SAMCO Securities.
Nomura said there is “massive uncertainty” on the targets, size and scope of the tariffs.
“The criteria for U.S. reciprocal tariffs will be much broader than simply matching other countries’ tariffs currently imposed on the U.S.”
Shares of India’s IT sector, which gets a substantial portion of its revenue from the U.S., fell 1.8% on the day ahead of key U.S. personal consumption expenditure data.
Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services dropped 2% and 1.2%, respectively, and were among the top three biggest drags on the benchmarks.
Indian auto shares lost 1% on the day, driven by losses in Mahindra & Mahindra, which closed 2.5% lower, ahead of the release of March sales data next week.
The broader, more domestically focussed smallcaps and midcaps fell 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.
Among stocks, exchange operator BSE surged around 17% after the country’s markets regulator rejigged the derivatives expiry schedule, a move analysts said will help ease concerns over its market share loss.
Indian financial markets will be closed on March 31. Stocks trading will resume on Tuesday, April 1.
(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Sumana Nandy, Janane Venkatraman and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
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