Sensex down 850 pts; Retail investors may diversify to Gold, Silver, says Nilesh Shah

Benchmark equity indices traded with notable losses in Tuesday’s trade amid weakness in index heavyweight – Bharti Airtel and IT shares. The US President Donald Trump’s threat of renewed tariffs weighed on the market sentiment.

India is the AI-reverse trade, globally, said Jefferies Global Equity Strategy Head Christopher Wood at Business Standard’s Manthan 2026 event. As long as the artificial intelligence (AI) capex is surging, India will continue to underperform.

Speaking at the event, Nilesh Shah, Manaing Director at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company said, with US tariffs reducing and the proposed India-EU free trade agreement expected to reduce duties further, India could emerge as a global leader in aquaculture.

Going forward, he also expect retail investors to diversify in Gold, Silver, multi-asset funds, and fund-of-funds.

As of 11:10 AM, the Nifty 50 was trading 0.8 per cent or 206.5 points down at 25,506.5, and the Sensex was trading 0.93 per cent or 776.90 points down at 82,517.6

Over the weekend, Trump hit back with 15 per cent new, temporary global tarriffs, and warned countries from backing away form recently negotiated trade deals even as the US Supreme Court ruled Trump’s tariffs as unlawful. READ MORE

Among the Sensex 30 shares – Infosys and Bharti Airtel accounted for a loss of over 250 points on the BSE Sensex. In terms of per centage losers – Eternal led with a near 4 per cent fall. HCL Technologies, TCS, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel and Infosys were down around 3 per cent each.

Bajaj Finance, Bharat Electronics, Trent and ITC were the other major losers – down over 1 per cent each. On the positive side, SBI, Power Grid Corporation and Tata Steel held marginal gains.

In the broader market, the BSE MidCap 150 index was down 0.8 per cent, and the SmallCap 250 declined 1 per cent.

BS Manthan kicks off today
The third edition of Business Standard Manthan—the annual thought leaders’ summit—kicks off today. Held at Bharat Mandapam, the ultimate destination for top-notch summits in New Delhi, it will witness a unique interplay of energy and intellect as 40 leaders from diverse fields engage in fireside chats and panel discussions over the next two days.