Asian Stocks Plunge as Trump Unveils New Tariffs; Indian Futures Follow Suit

New Delhi [India], April 3 (ANI): Asian stock markets experienced significant selling pressure on Thursday following US President Donald Trump’s announcement of retaliatory tariffs targeting several nations, such as India. This action generated widespread unease, resulting in steep drops across key indexes throughout the area.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan slid by 2.69 percent, the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong decreased by 1.80 percent, and South Korea’s KOSPI index went down by 1.3 percent as well.

Negative sentiment wasn’t confined to Asia; U.S. stock market futures also signaled unease. Specifically, Dow Jones Futures dropped by 1.78%, suggesting that American markets too had responded negatively to the tariff news.

Indian stock market futures faced similar pressures. The Nifty futures dropped by 1.11% ahead of the market’s start on Thursday, indicating that India’s financial markets could open in negative territory due to the worldwide economic decline.

Ajay Bagga, an authority on banking and markets, conveyed to ANI that what was once uncertain in the markets has solidified into a definite period of economic and fiscal stress. He explained, “The ambiguity has shifted towards a definitive phase of economic and market distress. Initially, people tend to seek refuge in secure investments and divest from risky ones. For India, this situation could manifest through constraints imposed by the U.S. dollar, decreased export volumes leading to lower profit margins, and disruptions in emerging-market investment flows as capital moves toward safer options such as gold, the Japanese yen, the Swiss franc, and Japanese governmental debt instruments.”

Bagga cautioned that should currency wars start, with China devaluing its currency to counteract the tariffs, this could lead to increased withdrawals from stock markets and subsequent drops in their values.

The China-focused offshore internet ETF has dropped by 6 percent, whereas the offshored Vietnam country ETF has experienced an even steeper decrease of 10 percent today.

On Wednesday (local time), US President Donald Trump declared new import duties, detailing the percentages set to affect various nations globally, including an imposition of a 26 percent tariff on goods from India.

Market players are currently keeping a close eye on worldwide events because further intensifications in trade disputes might result in increased turbulence within the financial markets. (ANI)

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