Mumbai, July 11 : The Indian equity market indices opened lower on Friday amid uncertainty surrounding US President Donald Trump's trade policies, as he continues to threaten elevated tariffs across various sectors and countries.

At 9.20 am, Sensex was down 224 points or 0.27 per cent at 82,965 and Nifty shed 65 points or 0.26 per cent at 25,289.

Marginal buying was seen in the midcap and smallcap stocks. Nifty midcap 100 index was up 60 points or 0.10 per cent at 59,220 and Nifty smallcap 100 index was up 11 points or 0.06 per cent at 18,967.

According to analysts, given the current environment marked by uncertainty and elevated volatility, traders are advised to adopt a cautious 'wait and watch' approach, particularly with leveraged positions. Booking partial profits on rallies and employing tight trailing stop-losses is recommended.

In the Sensex pack, HUL, Asian Paints, Axis Bank, NTPC, Power Grid, Tata Steel, SBI, Adani Ports, Tata Steel, Sun Pharma and ITC were major gainers. TCS, Infosys, M&M, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finserv and Trent were major losers.

On the sectoral front, PSU Bank, financial services, pharma, FMCG and metal were in the green, while auto, IT, realty and media were in the red.

In Asia, stock markets traded in the mixed zone. Japan's Nikkei 225 and South Korea's KOSPI were trading flat. However, China's Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng went up over one per cent.

Overnight in the US, Wall Street's major indices, the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, registered record closing highs. The Dow Jones climbed 0.43 per cent, and the S&P 500 gained 0.27 per cent.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 221 crore on July 10, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also purchased equities worth Rs 591 crore on the same day.

Trump has announced 35 per cent tariffs on Canada and warned of higher levies if Ottawa retaliates. These tariffs will effective from August 1. Most recently, Trump has threatened to impose a 50 per cent tariff on Brazilian imports unless Brazil halts legal proceedings against former President Bolsonaro.

/IANS