MUMBAI: Indian benchmark equity indices ended lower on Monday mainly due to sell-offs in metal, bank and IT counters as investors turned cautious over escalation of trade tariff spat between the US and China.The BSE gauge Sensex fell 73.88 points to 35,548.26 and the NSE Nifty slid 17.85 points to 10,799.85, taking cues from tumbling global shares.Market remained range-bound with a negative bias due to weak global cues amid concerns of USChina trade tensions.
Mid and small caps under-performed while metal stocks slid the most due to concerns on rising supply and fall in price, Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services Ltd, said.Crude price is gradually consolidating, while investors are awaiting Opec and Russia meeting this week to decide on relaxation of supply cuts, he added.US President Donald Trump on Friday slapped a 25 per cent tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, as he accused Beijing of intellectual property theft and unfair trade practices, triggering a full-fledged trade war between the worlds two largest economies.Reacting to Trumps latest announcement, China too imposed equal tariffs on US products.The 30-share Sensex opened on a somewhat better note at 35,698.43 and slipped further to touch a high of 35,721.55, largely on sustained capital inflows by domestic institutional investors and a drop in global crude prices.However, absence of cues from other Asian markets as most financials were shut today for a public holidays and a weak opening in European shares reversed the early gains, with the BSE benchmark hitting a low 35,518.73.
It finally ended at 35,548.26, down 73.88 points, or 0.21 per cent.