After opening the day marginally lower, share markets in India have continued to trade in the red. Sectoral indices are trading on a negative note with stocks in the metal sector and IT sector witnessing maximum selling pressure.

The BSE Sensex is trading down 36 points (down 0.1%) and the NSE Nifty is trading down 16 points (down 0.2%). The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.2%, while the BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.6%. The rupee is trading at 64.28 to the US$.

In the news from global financial markets, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde reported global economic recovery is gaining momentum.

Further, she reiterated her call for countries to use fiscal and monetary policies to boost demand and structural reforms to make economies more efficient.

However, she warned this momentum could be cut off by protectionism which is presently threatening the global trade.

Speaking ahead of next week’s IMF and World Bank spring meetings, Lagarde argued that countries should strengthen the open trade architecture by cooperating multilaterally to solve trade issues such as reducing excessive external imbalances.

The above comments seem to be in response to to the Trump administration’s threats to levy new tariffs against trade partners.

One shall note that Trump seems to be against free trade. He agrees on opposition to free trade, opposition to trade agreements, and opposition to importing goods from lower wage countries.

Trump has threatened to put tariffs on Chinese goods and to impose a tax on imports coming into the US. He’s also determined to wall off America’s border with Mexico. Apart from that, there’s also a proposal of 20% tax on imports from Mexico.

The above developments follow Trump’s fight over multinational trade as he pulled the US out of the 12 nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal last week.