Indian equities in Wednesday's trade (February 19) tracking weak Asian markets amid fresh tariff proposals by the US President Donald Trump opened lower. At the open, 30-share BSE Sensex was down 0.47 per cent or 358.46 points at 75,608.93, while the NSE's Nifty50 declined 0.5 per cent or 115.55 points to 22,829.75.

Meanwhile, the broader markets continued to trade in the red, with the smallcap gauge trading with a mild cut.

Sectorally, in a mixed trade, IT and pharma stocks led the losses, with pharma pack emerging as the laggard with a cut of over 2 per cent. Nevertheless, sectoral gauges trading in the green included Realty, PSU Bank and metal indices among others.

Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said,  "Despite largecap valuations turning fair,  and even attractive in segments like financials, the market continues to be weak. Seen in the context of new records being set by S&P 500 and Nasdaq, India’s underperformance is striking."

News of Chinese authorities encouraging their top businessmen to invest is another headwind for India since Chinese stocks are cheap ( Hang Seng is trading at PE of 12.6) and may attract big inflows from FIIs, which means FIIs might continue selling in India., added Vijaykumar.

Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Financial Services on the Nifty outlook said, "Half a step forward followed by a step backward has been the theme in the last few days, and that continued with 23000 stepping in to deflate the upside attempts. Despite this disappointment, the upside momentum appears to be intact, retaining 23150 as our first objective."

However, given how recent upswing attempts have panned out, we may expect 23060 also to pose brief resistance. But, as maintained yesterday, we require a push beyond 23300 inorder to avert an imminent drop aiming 21800-21300, he added.

Most Asian stocks in today's session retreated as the US President Trump threatened to levy more tariffs on major sectors. The key MSCI Asia Pacific index was down 0.02 per cent. 

At the start, shares in Hong Kong as well as mainland China dropped. Furthermore, Japanese stocks fell as key automakers including the likes of Honda Motor and Toyota Motor declined as the US President Trump threatened levy of tariffs on automobile, semiconductor and pharmaceutical imports of around 25 per cent.