Sensex edges lower amid weak global cues

(Reuters) - Indian shares edged lower on Monday, tracking weak Asian peers, as growing trade tensions between the United States and major economies of the world continued to dampen investors sentiment.

A Wall Street Journal report on Sunday said U.S. plans curbs on Chinese investment in U.S. technology firms, triggering a fall in Asian shares. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.25 percent while Japan’s Nikkei lost 0.4 percent.

“A little bit of uncertainty is there with the ongoing trade spats and there are no cues this week apart from F&O expiry which is creating some volatility,” said Hitesh Agarwal, EVP and Head – Retail Research, Religare Broking.

The broader NSE Nifty was down 0.15 percent at10,805.55 as of 0615 GMT while the benchmark BSE Sensex was 0.17 percent lower at 35,629.98.

“Over the past few weeks, Nifty is hovering around the 10,500-10,800 range and as of now there are no directional triggers for Nifty to move either ways. Probably, if the monsoon picks up some momentum, that could help the markets go towards the 11,000 mark,” Agarwal added.

Tata Motors Ltd, down as much as 4.1 percent at more than a two-week low, was the top percentage loser on both the indexes. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to impose a 20 percent tariff on all U.S. imports of European Union-assembled cars.

Analysts expect vehicles of Britain’s biggest automaker Jaguar Land Rover, which is also Tata Motors’ largest business, exported to the U.S. to take a big hit if Trump imposes tariffs.

Top oil refiners such as Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd and Indian Oil Corp Ltd, down more than 2.5 percent each, were among the top percentage losers on the NSE index.

Shares of PNB Housing Finance Ltd gained as much as 14.1 percent, marking their biggest ever intraday percent gain, after Economic Times reported that Housing Development Finance Corp Ltd and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd are competing for a controlling stake in the company.

HDFC CEO Keki Mistry told Reuters in an email that the company is not looking at acquiring a controlling stake in the smaller housing finance rival.