Markets open in red as US-China trade war intensifies

New Delhi: Indian benchmark equity indices opened lower on Tuesday mainly due to sell-offs in auto, bank and IT counters as investors turned cautious over escalation of trade tariff spat between the US and China.

The BSE gauge Sensex fell 111.72 points to 35,436.54 in early morning trade. Similarly, the NSE Nifty slid 41.15 points to 10,758.70, taking cues from tumbling global shares.

Trump warned on Monday that Washington would impose a 10 percent tariff on $200 billion of Chinese goods after Beijing`s decision to raise tariffs on $50 billion in US goods, which was in retaliation for US tariffs announced on Friday.

A sell-off in Chinese stocks drove Asian equities to a four-month low on Tuesday.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost more than 1 percent to its lowest level since early February, dragged down by a slide in Chinese shares. The index was last down 0.95 percent.

The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 1.9 percent and Hong Kong`s Hang Seng shed 2 percent.

With Reuters Inputs