India’s benchmark indices Nifty 50 and Sensex started the day in the red on Tuesday.
Nifty 50 sank below the 24,500 mark, going down around 0.77% to trade at 24,487.70 points while the Sensex was down 0.71% to trade at 81,165.23 in early trade.
The fall today comes as investors remain jittery ahead of the US Fed meeting.
The two-day meeting is expected to conclude with Jerome Powell announcing a 25 basis point interest rate cut on Wednesday.
The sentiment also dampened as foreign institutional investors turned net sellers of Indian equities on Monday.
FIIs sold Indian stocks worth around ₹270 crore (around £25.07 million) on Monday. The India VIX, or volatility index, jumped close to 6% to 14.8, indicating increasing market uncertainty.
Meanwhile, the Indian rupee fell to a new record low of 84.93 against the US dollar in early trade on Tuesday.
At the interbank foreign exchange, it opened at 84.89 before slipping further to 84.92, slightly down from its previous close of 84.91.
Indian stocks in focus today
A total of 48 stocks in the 50-stock Nifty index were in the red on Tuesday morning.
Heavyweights like HDFC Bank, TCS, Airtel, and Reliance Industries were all down over 1%.
Shares of India’s biggest private lender HDFC Bank were down after receiving a warning letter from SEBI, alleging non-compliance with disclosure regulations regarding the resignation of a senior employee.
The fall also dragged the Nifty Bank index which traded around 0.89% lower at 53,104.20 points.
Gains were seen in the pharma giant Cipla and Jaguar Land Rover parent Tata Motors.
The Mumbai-based pharma major saw shares rise around 2.4% to hit an intraday high at ₹1,483 as domestic brokerage firm Kotak Institutional Equities upgraded the stock to “buy” from “add,” with a target price of ₹1,725.
Adani Group stocks in the index, Adani Ports, and Adani Enterprises were also in the green in early trade on Tuesday.
Sectors such as Oil and Gas, Telecom, Metals, Financials, and Auto were all struggling at the bourses.
However, sectors such as Agriculture, Real Estate, and Media were in the green.
Asian peers show mixed trends
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was trading flat while South Korea’s Kospi continued its drop due to the ongoing political crisis.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index also opened in the red trading 0.39% lower at the time of writing.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose close to 0.8, while Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.12%.
The US stock market ended mixed on Monday even as the Nasdaq closed at a record high driven by gains in tech shares.
On the other hand, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.25% to 43,717.85, while the S&P 500 rose 23.03 points, or 0.38%, to 6,074.12.
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