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Markets slip in red after positive start ahead of GST Council meeting
Sep-03-2025

Indian equity benchmarks made a slightly positive start on Wednesday and soon slipped below neutral lines amid uncertainty over U.S. trade tariffs and rising oil prices on supply concerns. U.S. President Donald Trump said that he is not looking at lowering tariffs on India and there is an imbalanced trade relationship with New Delhi because of high Indian levies. At this point of trade, Sensex and Nifty are trading flat with negative bias as traders adopted wait-and-watch approach ahead of the two-day Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting, scheduled for September 3 and 4, 2025. The GST Council is likely to discuss the revisions of tax slabs. Also, investors are looking ahead to the release of the India’s Services PMI data later in the day, for more directional cues. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders remain cautious amid renewed uncertainty among various nations trading with the US, many of which have concluded tariff deals, after a US Federal Appeals Court ruled that President Donald Trump's ‘reciprocal tariffs’ are illegal. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 80065.60, down by 92.28 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 80004.60 and 80317.62. There were 15 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.31%, while Small cap index was up by 0.59%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.62%, Basic Materials up by 0.99%, Oil & Gas up by 0.49%, PSU up by 0.47% and Industrials up by 0.44%, while Telecom down by 0.66%, TECK down by 0.57%, IT down by 0.42%, Realty down by 0.10% and Auto down by 0.05% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 1.70%, Eternal up by 0.71%, Bharat Electronics up by 0.66%, ITC up by 0.61% and Axis Bank up by 0.55%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.06%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.69%, Trent down by 0.58%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.53% and ICICI Bank down by 0.45% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has expressed hope that India will conclude the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) with the US by the fall or November this year. He said that ‘a little bit’ of geopolitical issues overtook the trade matters in the negotiations for the pact between the two countries. He said ‘I do hope that things will get back on track soon and we will conclude a bilateral trade agreement by the fall, November or so, as was discussed by our two leaders in February’. He said there is an excitement across the world to expand trading and business relations with India. He added ‘We have had a little bit of geopolitical issues overtaking trade issues in our negotiations with the United States of America’.

He noted that India has already inked free trade agreements with Australia, the UAE, Mauritius, the UK and the four European nations bloc EFTA. India and the US have been negotiating the pact since March. So far, five rounds of talks have been completed. A US team was scheduled to visit India from August 25 to hold the next round of talks. However, the US team deferred the visit following the imposition of a 50 per cent duty on Indian goods from August 27. So far, no new dates have been finalised for the sixth round of negotiations. 

India and the US have planned to conclude the first phase of BTA by the fall this year with an aim to more than double bilateral trade in goods and services to $500 billion by 2030 from the current $191 billion. Goyal further said that India’s supply chains are resilient, and the nation is not at the ‘mercy of any other country choosing to switch on or switch off the tap’. He said this is making India Atmanirbhar and self-reliant, building the confidence of young India to take on any challenge the world wants to throw at it.

On the India-EU free trade agreement, Goyal said talks are at an advanced stage. He said ‘We are making very active and significant progress’, added that Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal is in Brussels for talks with EU officials on the pact. The 13th round of negotiations between India and the EU will begin on September 8. After the meeting, European Commissioner for Trade Maros Sefcovic is likely to visit India next month to take stock of the progress of the agreement. As there is a deadline to conclude the negotiations by the end of this year, this round is important. The EU market accounts for about 17 per cent of India’s total exports, while the EU’s exports to India make up 9 per cent of its total overseas shipments.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24551.95, down by 27.65 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 24533.20 and 24630.70. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 1.85%, Tata Steel up by 1.66%, Cipla up by 1.04%, Bharat Electronics up by 0.78% and Eternal up by 0.76%. On the flip side, HDFC Life Insurance down by 1.18%, Infosys down by 1.09%, Tata Consumer Products down by 0.77%, SBI Life Insurance down by 0.76% and Trent down by 0.75% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Nikkei 225 slipped 263.49 points or 0.62% to 42,047.00, Hang Seng declined 108.55 points or 0.43% to 25,388.00, Shanghai Composite weakened 37.15 points or 0.96% to 3,820.98 and Straits Times fell 14.05 points or 0.33% to 4,284.46. On the other hand, Taiwan Weighted rose 75.45 points or 0.31% to 24,092.23, Jakarta Composite gained 71.64 points or 0.92% to 7,873.23 and KOSPI was up by 10.30 points or 0.32% to 3,182.65.
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