Stock markets update: Equity benchmark indices declined in early trade on Friday amid weak trends in Asian markets and unabated foreign fund outflows. In the early trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex fell 137.22 points to 74,202.87 in early trade. Meanwhile, the Nifty declined 28 points to 22,516.70  points. As per reports, investors remained cautious amid fears that US President Donald Trump’s tariffs could slow down the country’s economy. Even his decision to defer tariffs on select Canadian and Mexican goods under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) until April 2 failed to ease market concerns.

Top gainers and losers

Stocks such as Bharat Electronics, HDFC Life, SBI Life, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Adani Ports, Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, Grasim, and L&T were among the top gainers, with gains of up to 2%. On the other hand, Infosys, Shriram Finance, HCL Tech, NTPC, ICICI Bank, Tech Mahindra, BPCL, Cipla, and Wipro led the decline, falling up to 1.3%.

Sectoral performance

Among sectoral indices, Nifty IT was the biggest loser, dropping 1%. The Nifty Bank, Nifty Private Bank, and Nifty Pharma indices also registered minor declines of 0.2% each. On the upside, the Nifty Metal index bucked the trend, gaining 0.4%.