Indian share markets continued to witness selling pressure in the noon session following losses in global equities after US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on Chinese goods stoking fears of a trade war.

China said it doesn't fear a trade war with the US and announced plans for reciprocal tariffs on US$3 billion of imports from the US.

Reportedly, China plans tariffs on imports of US pork imports, recycled aluminium, steel pipes, fruit and wine. China will also pursue legal action against the US at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in response to the US planned tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.

Policy makers across the world are warning of a brewing trade war that could undermine the broadest global recovery in years. Meanwhile, business groups representing companies ranging from Walmart Inc. to Amazon.com Inc. are warning US tariffs could raise prices for consumers and sideswipe stock prices.

The BSE Sensex is trading lower by 431 points and the NSE Nifty is trading down by 133 points. Meanwhile, the BSE Mid Cap index is trading down by 1.9% & the BSE Small Cap index is down by 2.2%.

Losses were largely seen in realty stocks, metal stocks and bank stocks. The rupee is trading at 65.06 to the US$.

Union Bank of India share price fell 8.2% in the noon session after The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a Rs 13.94 billion bank fraud case against Hyderabad-based Totem Infrastructure Ltd on a complaint by state-run Union Bank of India.

It was alleged in the complaint by Union Bank that the company had diverted funds by opening accounts outside the consortium and through payments of wages by showing excess expenditure and inflated stocks. The entire sale proceeds were not allegedly routed through the dealing branches of consortium banks.The number of bank fraud cases has been piling up after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) directed banks to file complaints against erring companies. The latest case comes just a day after the investigating agency filed a case of loan fraud against Kanishk Gold Pvt. Ltd on a complaint by State Bank of India (SBI).

Meanwhile, this comes after reports of about Rs 127 billion fraud at the country's second largest state-run lender Punjab National Bank.

It has put the spotlight on the growing bad loan problems in Indian banks.

And brought to the fore the painful issue of willful defaulters especially after the Vijay Mallya fiasco. Below chart shows the banks that have the highest number of willful defaulters.

Banks with the Highest Number of Willful Defaulters

Unsurprisingly, Punjab National Bank tops the list.

But the others aren't too far behind.

Moving on to news from engineering sector. As per a leading financial daily, The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has entered into a technology transfer agreement (TTA) with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) under which it will pass on the technology for the manufacture of space grade Li-Ion cells.

Isro uses Li-Ion batteries as a power source for satellite to launch vehicle applications due to their high energy density, reliability and long cycle life. Isro is gearing up to launch the GSAT-6A, a high-power S-band communication satellite on March 29.

The Lithium-ion technology can also be further extended for use in the emerging areas of energy storage and e-mobility. BHEL will set up a state-of-the-art facility for manufacturing these cells at its Bengaluru unit.

BHEL share price was trading down by 0.3% at the time of writing.

In news from Indian economy, the credit ratings agency, ICRA in its latest report has stated that India's current account deficit (CAD) is likely to widen to US$10-12 billion in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2017-18 (FY18), as against US$3.4 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

It said CAD may increase on the back of higher merchandise trade deficit and added that the services trade surplus is expected to improve. The report noted, given other macroeconomic fundamentals, the level of current account deficit is unlikely to pose a major macroeconomic risk.

However, report said that the extent of capital flows would determine the sentiment towards the rupee and the level of foreign exchange reserves. It also said that the pace of economic growth, the strength of the recovery in corporate earnings, the magnitude of IPOs, the result of resolution of NPAs and the bank recapitalisation program would impact FII interest in the domestic equity market in the pre-election year.

ICRA said that presently it appears unlikely that aggregate FII inflows into debt and equity would record a rise in FY19 from the expected three-year high level of US$21-23 billion in FY18.