Indian shares sink on global trade war, U.S. recession fears

The Nasdaq index confirmed it entered a bear market on Friday (April 4, 2025), as oil prices and other commodities plunged amid a massive global market decline following Mr. Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Indian shares opened sharply lower on Monday (April 6, 2025), as concerns over a global trade war and growing recession fears in the U.S. triggered a stock market rout on Wall Street and in other Asian markets.

The Nifty 50 declined 5% to 21,758.4 in pre-open trade as of 09:08 a.m. IST, while the BSE Sensex fell 5.29% to 71,379.89.

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All 13 major sectors declined. The broader small-caps and mid-caps lost 10% and 7.3%, respectively.

Other Asian markets slumped, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index losing 6.8%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 6.5%.

“U.S. President Trump’s new tariffs are ‘larger than expected,’ and the economic impact on inflation and growth will be likely,” said Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday (April 4, 2025), flagging an uncertain outlook on the U.S. economy.

The Nasdaq index confirmed it entered a bear market on Friday (April 4, 2025), as oil prices and other commodities plunged amid a massive global market decline following Mr. Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs on Wednesday (April 2, 2025).