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(Reuters) – Indian stocks edged down on Monday as Asian peers weakened, as rising trade tensions between the United States and the world's major economies continued to dampen investor sentiment.
A Sunday Wall Street Journal report indicates that the United States is planning to limit Chinese investment in US tech companies, triggering a fall in Asian equities. The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific equities outside Japan fell 0.25% while the Japanese Nikkei lost 0.4%.
"A bit of uncertainty is there with the pitfalls of the trade and there are no clues this week outside the expiry of F & O which creates some volatility", said Hitesh Agarwal, executive vice president and director of research at Religare Broking.
The broader Nifty NSE was down 0.15 percent at 10,805.55 at 6:15 GMT while the BSE Sensex benchmark was 0.17 percent lower at 35,629.98.
"Over the past few weeks, Nifty is running around 10,500-10,800 and for now there is no directional trigger for Nifty to move back and forth." Probably, if the monsoon takes a some momentum, it could help markets reach the 11,000 mark, "added Agarwal.
Tata Motors Ltd., down 4.1% at more than a two-week low, was the leading loser in percentage of both indices. US President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to impose a 20% tariff on all US imports of cars assembled by the European Union.
Analysts expect the vehicles of Britain's largest automaker, Jaguar Land Rover, which is also Tata Motors' largest company, to export to the United States, and that Trump is imposing tariffs.
Major oil refiners such as Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd., Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. and Indian Oil Corp., down more than 2.5% each, were among the strongest losers as a percentage of the NSE index.
Shares of PNB Housing Finance Ltd rose 14.1%, marking their largest intraday gain, after the Economic Times announced that Housing Development Finance Corp. and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd are competing for a majority stake in the company.
HDFC CEO Keki Mistry told Reuters in an email that the company was not seeking to acquire a majority stake in the small rival of housing finance.
Report by Vishal Sridhar in Bangalore; Editing by Vyas Mohan
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