Bharti Infratel was top loser in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock fell 3 per cent to Rs 257.The S-P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes edged lower in trade on Tuesday mirroring losses in other Asian markets after US President Donald Trump stunned markets with tariffs against Brazil and Argentina, recharging fears about global trade tensions, while weak US factory data added to the investor gloom.

Losses in metal, information technology and select banking shares weighed on the benchmarks in opening trade.

The Sensex fell as much as 71 points and the Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 12,028.55.As of 9:23 am, the Sensex was down 69 points at 40,732 and Nifty was at 12,030, down 19 points.Six of 11 sector gauges compiled by National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Metal index's over 1 per cent decline.Nifty Bank, Nifty IT, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Private Bank indexes were also trading with a negative bias.On the other hand, Nifty Auto index was top gainer, up 0.3 per cent.Mid- and small-cap shares were witnessing marginally higher as the Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.13 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.2 per cent.Bharti Infratel was top loser in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock fell 3 per cent to Rs 257.

Tata Steel, Vedanta, Hindalco, JSW Steel, Grasim Industries, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, ONGC and Nestle India were also among the laggards.On the flipside, Bajaj Finance was top gainer, the stock rose 1 per cent to Rs 3,991.

Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors, State Bank of India, Bajaj Finserv, Britannia Industries, Titan and Maruti Suzuki were also among the gainers.