Sensex down 260 pts, Nifty below 24,700; FMCG lead gains, pharma drags

Stock Market today: Benchmark equity indices remained volatile, trading in the negative territory on Friday, August 1, as investor mood remained jittery after the US announced the imposition of 25 per cent tariffs on Indian imports.

At 12:10 PM, BSE Sensex was down by 259 points or 0.31 per cent, trading at 80,927.79 level. The index hit an intraday low of 80,841.28, down by 339 points.

Whereas, Nifty50 was trading at 24,665.35, down by 103 points or 0.42 per cent. The index hit an intraday low of 24,635.75 level.

Majority of stocks from the Sensex pack were trading in red with Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Infosys and Tech Mahindra among the top laggards. On the flip side, Asian Paints, Trent, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), ITC and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the top gainers.

 

Broader markets witnessed steeper losses. The Nifty Midcap index was trading at 57,040 level, down by 0.63 per cent. The Nifty Smallcap index followed suit, and was down by 0.66 per cent, quoting 17,847 level.   Sectorally, Nifty FMCG was among the top-performing sectoral indices, trading at 56,282.85, up by 0.84 per cent. On the flip side, Nifty Pharma was the worst-performing index, declining by 3 per cent, quoting 22,087.

FMCG gains, pharma drags

Major FMCG giants were trading in green as positive earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2025, lifted investor sentiment. Radico Khaitan shares were trading at ₹2,879.50, up by over 5 per cent on the National Stock Exchange, after announcing a 73 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) profit jump in Q1FY26. Shares of FMCG major Dabur witnessed a similar trend and rose over 3 per cent after reporting a 2.8 per cent Y-o-Y surge in net profit levels to ₹320.13 crore in Q1FY26. On a sequential basis, the company's net profit jumped over 60 per cent. Shares of HUL also experienced a sharp uptrend of over 8 per cent, logging an intraday of ₹2,727.5 on the NSE.

However, shares of pharma major, Sun Pharmaceuticals, declined over 4 per cent, trading at ₹1,638.30 on the NSE. While subdued Q1 results dragged the investor mood, the Trump administration's recent announcement on the imposition of a 25 per cent tariff rate on Indian imports further pulled down the stock. Except Mankind, all stocks from the Nifty Pharma index were trading in red on Friday.

Tariffs to cause more pain?

While D-street witnessed a sharp decline after Trump's 25 per cent tariff announcement on Thursday, markets were able to trim all losses during the trading session. That apart, the tariff deadline has been extended to August 7.    "The August series starts on a weak note after the 3.1 per cent dip in Nifty in July. In the near-term, the market will be influenced by the tariff-related news. Since the date of implementation of the modified tariff rates is August 7, that gives countries time to negotiate and bring the tariffs down. That may happen," said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist, Geojit Investments.  Market analysts are currently viewing the tariff-related trigger as more of a short-term issue with expectations around tariffs coming below 25 per cent. However, the overall investor mood will remain jittery until then. It is also worth mentioning that India's export competitors, including Taiwan and Vietnam, are facing a relatively lower tariff rate of 20 per cent.

"Yesterday’s market action indicates that the market views the 25 per cent tariff as a short-term issue. The rate is likely to come down after the next round of negotiations beginning this month," Vijayakumar added.