Mumbai, April 9 || Indian equity indices opened in the red on Wednesday, following its global peers, as US President Donald Trump threatened reciprocal tariffs on the global pharmaceutical sector.
Ahead of the RBI monetary police committee (MPC) decisions — where a 25 bps repo rate cut is likely along with the stance shifting to 'accommodative' from 'neutral' — Sensex was down 302 points or 0.41 per cent at 73,939, and Nifty was down 107 points or 0.48 per cent at 22,433, in the early trade.
Along with largecaps, midcaps and smallcaps also fell. Nifty midcap 100 index was down 436 points or 0.87 per cent at 49,402 and Nifty smallcap 100 index was down 150 points or 0.98 per cent at 15,238.
On the sectoral front, auto, FMCG, consumption were major gainers. IT, PSU Bank, pharma, metal, realty, infra and commodities were major laggards.
In the Sensex pack, Power Grid, Nestle, HUL, M&M, ITC, Asian Paints and Bharti Airtel were major gainers. Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, HCL Tech, Eternal, TCS, Sun Pharma were major losers.
Devarsh Vakil, Head of Prime Research at HDFC Securities, said "We expect the markets to remain volatile today as well, as traders navigate the weekly derivative expiry today”.