First Trade: Sensex sheds 64 points, Nifty at 23,043

Indian equities in Wednesday's trade (February 12) despite positive Asian markets opened lower continuing their downward trend for the sixth straight session. At the open, the BSE 30-share Sensex was down 0.08 per cent or 63.75 points at 76,229.85 points, while the NSE Nifty50 shed 0.13 per cent or 28.95 points to trade at 23,042.85. Meanwhile, in a volatile session, broader markets continued to underperform the headline indices, with both mid and smallcap indices correcting by up to 0.6 per cent after sharp drag of over 3 per cent in the previous session.

Sectorally, IT and metal stocks showed some resilience, while all other indices traded with a cut. Leading the losses were sectoral indices like Realty, Consumer Durables, Oil & Gas and Auto among others.

Dr.. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said, "Trump’s tariff tantrums have been impacting the markets for the last several days. Trump moving away from targeting specific countries like Mexico, Canada and to a lesser extent China, and moving to import tariffs on steel and aluminium on all countries, has aggravated the concerns. The European Union’s declaration that they will retaliate with counter tariffs has raised the probability of a full-blown trade war."

Technical view

Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Financial Services on the Nifty outlook said, "Upswings got challenged much earlier than expected, but the downsides thereof stopped shortly after testing our downside objective of 23060. This encourages us to look for a recovery attempt today. Like yesterday we will carefully gauge the upside prospects on the go, but as is, the objectives may be placed at 23320, with 23200 appearing as a critical challenge."

Alternatively, inability to float above 23138 or a direct fall past 22960, could trigger stronger falls, starting with 22800, but favoured view see low prospects of such a collapse, for now, he added.

Asian markets

Asia Pacific markets mostly traded higher in Wednesday's session as investors discounted Trump's tariff impact. The key MSCI Asia ex Japan index was up 0.47 per cent at the last count. Meanwhile, the US Fed Chair Jerome Powell stressed on the central bank's focus on controlling inflation and also signalled that policymakers are not in a hurry to cut down interest rates.