INDIA STOCKS-Indian shares slip as trade tensions escalate; RBI decision in focus

By Bharath Rajeswaran

April 9 (Reuters) - Indian shares fell on Wednesday after a brief rebound in the previous session, as renewed trade tensions triggered a global equity sell-off ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's policy decision on interest rates and growth support.

The Nifty 50 .NSEI fell 0.61% to 22,401.35 while the BSE Sensex .BSESN lost 0.45% to 73,885.3, respectively, as of 09:50 a.m. IST.

Twelve of the 13 major sectors declined, while the broader smallcaps .NIFSMCP100 and midcaps .NIFMDCP100 lost 1.3% each.

IT companies .NIFTYIT, which earn a significant share of their revenue from the U.S., lost 2.8%.

The pharma index .NIPHARM dropped 1.8%, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would be announcing "major tariffs" on pharmaceutical imports soon.

Other Asian markets tanked, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS dropping 2.2%. Japan's Nikkei 225 .N225 shed 3.7%.

Wall Street equities plunged on "stagflation" concerns as the 104% duties imposed by the U.S. on Chinese importstook effect from Wednesday. MKTS/GLOB .N

"With U.S-China trade tensions soaring and the deadline for reciprocal tariffs looming, the sentiment is weak," said Avinash Gorakshakar, director of research at Profitmart Securities.

"The RBI policy will be the joker in the pack. A 25 basis point cut is the consensus expectation, but any shift either through a deeper rate cut or a rate pause could trigger sharp market gyrations," Gorakshakar said.

The policy decision is expected at 10:00 a.m. IST.

The central bank cut the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25% at its last policy meet in February, to spur growth. Since then, economic uncertainty has risen due to the punishing U.S. trade tariffs, heightening expectations for supportive measures from the central bank.

Among individual stocks, upstream oil companies such as Oil & Natural Gas Corp ONGC.NS and Oil India OILI.NS fell 2.6% and 3.3%, tracking the slide in Brent crude to a more than four-year low on demand concerns due to the global trade war. O/R