Stock market crash: Investors lose ₹11.19 lakh crore as markets tumble amid US tariff fears

Stock market investors lost wealth worth ₹11.19 lakh crore on Friday, April 3, data from the BSE showed. The SENSEX and NIFTY crashed over 1% each mirroring losses in global markets a day after US President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on its trading partners. The SENSEX fell as much as 1,009.07 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 22,874 on the back of a broad-based selling pressure.

As of 2:03 pm, the SENSEX was down 940 points or 1.23% at 75,355.30 and NIFTY50 index dropped 1.58% or 369 points to 22,881.

Overnight, US stocks posted their worst day since 2020 on fears that the tariffs announced by President Trump could stoke slowdown in global economy and spike inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 3.98% or 1,679.39 points, Nasdaq crashed 5.97% and S&P50 dropped 4.84%.

Investors’ fears that a full-blown trade war could trigger a sharp global economic slowdown and drive up inflation, with the latest round of US trade tariffs hitting a world economy that has barely recovered from the post-pandemic inflation surge and dealing with geopolitical strife, Reuters report added.

Selloff in US markets spilled over to Asian and European equities as Japan's Nikkei dropped 2.80%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 2.44% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.52%.

Markets in Europe were also trading sharply lower as Germany's DAX tumbled 1.64%, French CAC40 index fell 1.35% and England's FTSE100 index fell 1.30%.

Back home, selling pressure was visible across board as all the major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower. Metal and pharma shares, which showed resilience in trade yesterday, came under heavy selling pressure on Friday after media reports suggested that they would also come in the ambit of tariffs. US had exempted steel and pharma products from the ambit of tariffs. NIFTY Metal index was top sectoral loser, the index dropped over 6% while Pharma index collapsed 4.32%. IT, Auto, Realty, PSU Bank, Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas indices also fell between 2-4%.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also trading sharply lower with NIFTY Midcap 100 index declining 3.04% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index tumbling 3.58%.

Oil related shares like Reliance Industries and ONGC dropped after price of crude oil dropped below $65 per barrel in the international markets.

Tata Motors dropped 6.33% after CLSA said that the imposition of 25% US tariffs and the reduction in the number of model offerings for Jaguar Land Rover may lead to a drop in Jaguar Land Rover volumes by 14% in financial year 2025-26.

The overall market breadth was extremely negative as 2,880 shares ended lower while 967 ended higher on the BSE.