Stock Market Crash, RBI Rate Cut, Trump's Tariff Pause — The Week That Was

The past week has been eventful for global and Indian markets, marked by significant developments including a market crash, an RBI rate cut, the tariff pause by US President Donald Trump, the start of the earnings season, and China's retaliatory tariffs on US imports. These events have shaped the financial landscape, influencing investor sentiment and market dynamics.

The Indian stock market fell over 5% on Monday following US President Donald Trump's announcement of 26% tariffs on India. The NSE Nifty 50 registered its worst intraday fall since June 2024, with all sectoral indices ending lower for the day.

This comes after Asian markets plunged the most in 14 years on Monday following Wall Street's decline.

The Indian market rebounded during the trading on Tuesday, before declining again on Wednesday. On Friday, the indices again soared in the backdrop of Trump pausing the tariffs for 90 days.

RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra announced a 25 basis points cut in the central bank's benchmark lending rate, lowering it to 6% from 6.25%. This marked the second consecutive reduction in repo rate, following a similar 25 basis points cut announced in February.

The central bank's Monetary Policy Committee changed its stance from 'neutral' to 'accommodative', which suggests that the MPC is in favour of cutting rates ahead to support growth.

The RBI also revised its real gross domestic product growth projection for fiscal 2026 to 6.5%, down by 20 basis points as compared to its previous estimate.

Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs for over 75 countries, which have not retaliated against the reciprocal levies announced by him last week.

The tariff pause benefits India, as it is one of the countries that have not retaliated against the sharp levies that were announced by the United States on April 3.

During this period of interim relief, the US will impose a base tariff of 10% on all imports. This is significantly lower than the 25-50% tariffs announced last week on several economies, especially those in South and East Asia.

The earnings season began this week with the release of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.'s fourth-quarter results.

The company's net profit fell 1.26% to Rs 12,224 crore, below the estimated Rs 12,766 crore.

Revenue of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd rose marginally by 0.79% over the previous three months to Rs 64,479 crore in the quarter ended March 31, 2025. This compares with the Rs 64,848 crore consensus estimate of analysts tracked by Bloomberg.

China raised its tariffs on imports from the US to 125% on Friday in retaliation to the Trump administration's 145% levies on Chinese exports.

The Chinese finance ministry also clarified that it would not be raising the tariffs any more, even if the US further hikes the duties on its products.

“...there is no longer any possibility of market acceptance for US goods exported to China under the current tariff levels," it said.