Indian stock market closes higher in volatile session amid fresh US tariff concerns

Mumbai, Aug 7 The Indian stock market settled slightly up on Thursday after witnessing a highly volatile session, sidelining the US President Donald Trump's fresh tariff jitters.

However, stocks from textiles, jewellery and auto ancillaries sectors, which have export exposures to the US, remained under pressure, but a rebound in banking, FMCG and IT stocks turned the market positive in the late session.

Sensex settled at 80,623.26, up 79.27 points or 0.10 per cent. The 30-share index started the session in negative territory at 80,262.98 against the last day's closing of 80,543.99, experiencing pressure following Trump's additional tariff announcement. However, the index recovered from the losses to touch an intra-day high of 80,737.55 amid buying in IT, Banking's and other heavyweight stocks in afternoon trade.

Nifty closed at 24,596.15, up 21.95 or 0.09 per cent.

"Early jitters from Donald Trump’s renewed tariff rhetoric — which proposed a 25 per cent additional levy on Indian imports — were largely absorbed by the market. Sectors with high U.S. export exposure like textiles, jewellery, and auto ancillaries remained under pressure, but a late-session rebound in banking and FMCG helped offset broader losses," said Vikram Kasat, Head of Advisory, PL Capital.

Tech Mahindra, Eternal, HCL Tech, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki and Tata Steel settled in green from the Sensex basket. Trent, Hindustan Unilever, Mahindra and Mahindra, Kotak Bank, NTPC, and Tata Motors were among the top losers.

After experiencing a volatile trading majority of sectoral indices ended the session in green amid value buying across the sectors. Nifty Fin Services jumped 32 points, Bank Nifty ended Thursday's trading 110 points or 0.20 per cent higher, Nifty Auto jumped 59 points or 0.25 per cent, Nifty IT surged 300 points or 0.87 per cent, and Nifty FMCG closed 67 points or 0.12 per cent higher.

"Domestic equities recovered sharply from the intraday lows amid a volatile weekly expiry day. Although the earlier trade was weighed down by broad-based selling following steep US tariff hikes on India, sentiment improved toward the close as reports of potential peace talks involving Trump, Putin, and Zelensky, which raised hopes of a softer US stance on trade," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited.

The broader market followed suit as well. Nifty Small Cap 100 moved up 30 points, Nifty Midcap 100 jumped 188 points, Nifty 100 closed 28 points higher, and Nifty Next 50 ended the session 156 points up.

Rupee stayed range-bound with a slightly positive bias, trading at 87.67.

"Despite the marginal uptick, the broader trend remains weak due to ongoing US-imposed tariffs on Indian goods, which have weighed heavily on the rupee over the past four months, causing it to slide from 84.50 to 87.70," said Jateen Trivedi of LKP Securities.

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