Indian shares continued to fall sharply on Monday, with the Sensex and Nifty crashing about 5 per cent in early trade, mirroring a sharp fall in global equities.

Sensex, a pack of India’s top 30 companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, lost 3,939.68 points or 5.22 per cent to 71,425.01, while Nifty, the National Stock Exchange index, dropped 1,160.8 points or 5.06 per cent to 21,743.65. 

The collapse reportedly wiped out investors’ wealth worth Rs 20.16 lakh crore in early trade.

Other Asian markets also slumped, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropping nearly 11 per cent, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 plunging nearly 7 per cent, Shanghai SSE Composite index tumbling over 6 per cent, and South Korea’s Kospi index declining 5 per cent.

Last week, the Sensex sank 2,050.23 points or 2.64 per cent, while the Nifty dropped 614.8 points or 2.61 per cent.

Why Indian Stock Market Is Down Today

The Indian stock market crashed as US President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes and retaliation from China fuelled investors’ jitters amid fears that a full-blown trade war will impact economic growth across the world.

President Trump has sparked a market meltdown after he unveiled sweeping tariffs against US trading partners last week. China also hit back, saying it would impose retaliatory levies of 34 percent on all US goods from April 10. 

The tit-for-tat moves have now raised concerns of a prolonged trade war.

“Reciprocal tariffs, even if temporary, highlight the increased uncertainty for companies and investors,” Reuters quoted Kotak Institutional Equities analyst Sanjeev Prasad as saying.

“The performance of Indian markets in the next few weeks will depend on whether there is a reconciliation or retaliation in the tariff situation and behaviour of India’s retail and domestic institutional investors,” he said.

VK Vijayakumar, the Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said that the markets globally are going through “heightened volatility caused by extreme uncertainty”. 

“No one has a clue about how this turbulence caused by Trump’s tariffs will evolve. Wait and watch would be the best strategy in this turbulent phase of the market,” he was quoted as saying by the news agency PTI.