US-China trade war drags Indian stocks in early trade

MUMBAI: Caught in the US-China trade war, the Indian stock markets were fluctuating between losses and gains in early trade on Thursday.

Trading on the BSE showed a loss of 160 points in the Sensex, at 80,550 levels. The NSE Nifty also dropped by 56 points to 24,556.

According to Bloomberg’s report on Wednesday, the US administration is considering stringent rules that could prevent US companies from exporting critical chipmaking equipment to China.

Meanwhile, former US President and presidential candidate Donald Trump demanded that Taiwan pay for US defense services. Trump also claimed that Taiwan monopolizes “about 100 per cent” of America’s semiconductor business.

In broader market trends, both the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices slumped over 1 per cent each.

Among sectors, the Nifty IT rose by 0.9 percent, the Nifty FMCG increased by 0.5 per cent, and the Nifty PSU Bank edged up by 0.12 percent. Conversely, the Nifty Media index fell by 4 per cent