INDIA STOCKS-Indian shares fall as U.S. tariff worries persist

Updates for afternoon trading

By Bharath Rajeswaran and Indranil Sarkar

Feb 14 (Reuters) - India's benchmark indexes extended losses on Friday as investors fretted over the implications of Trump's plans to impose reciprocal tariffs, which analysts said could hurt the country the most among its Asian peers.

U.S. President Donald Trump is planning to slap reciprocal tariffs on every country taxing U.S. imports. The imposition of these duties, however, is likely to be delayed, helping global stocks stage a relief rally.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Trump on Thursday and offered to talk about easing tariffs, buying more U.S. oil and gas, combat aircraft and concessions.

But that did little to calm markets back home on worries that India could be hit hard by reciprocal tariffs. The Nifty 50 .NSEI and the BSE Sensex .BSESN lost about 0.8% each as of 2:25 p.m. IST.

"Indian markets have seen sharper losses on the day due to the high tariff differential with the U.S., compared to most other Asian economies," said Narendra Solanki, head of research at Anand Rathi.

Analysts said the potential consequences of U.S. tariffs on the Indian rupee and U.S. interest rates could trigger further foreign outflows, hurting domestic equities.

All 13 major sectors were down, with drug makers .NIPHARM, which have significant revenue exposure to the U.S., falling the most with a 3.41% decline.

Telecom operator Vodafone Idea VODA.NS fell 5.6% and Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS was down 0.1% after India's top court dismissed a set of review petitions filed to overturn the earlier order on the calculation of dues.

The smallcaps .NIFSMCP100 and midcaps .NIFMDCP100 tumbled 4% and 3%, respectively, and continued their downward trend on fears of slowing corporate earnings and stretched valuations.

The smallcap index is currently down about 21% from its record in December, while midcaps are 19.5% off from their peak closing level September.