Sensex, Nifty turn cautious ahead of US Fed policy meet

Domestic equity benchmark BSE Sensex the NSE Nifty turned cautious in early trade Tuesday ahead of US Federal Reserve’s meeting, amid escalating global trade war concerns. After rebounding over 150 points in opening session, the 30-share index pared gains to trade marginally higher at 38,969.76 at 0945 hours. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty was quoting slightly up at 11,678.25.

In the previous session on Monday, the BSE gauge settled 491.28 points, or 1.25 per cent, lower at 38,960.79; while the Nifty cracked 151.15 points, or 1.28 per cent, to close at 11,672.15.

Top losers in the Sensex pack in early trade included Yes Bank, Tata Steel, Asian Paints, HUL, SBI and RIL, shedding up to 1.55 per cent.

On the other hand, PowerGrid, Infosys, IndusInd Bank, HCL Tech, Vedanta, M&M, Bajaj Finance and HDFC rose up to 1.42 per cent.

Investors have turned cautious ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s policy meeting, scheduled to begin later in the day, traders said.

According to experts, market is finding it difficult to sustain at elevated levels on the back of muted corporate earnings, slow monsoon season, continuous corporate defaults and developing concerns of India-US trade disagreements.

Further adding to worries are concerns around an escalation of the trade war between the US and China, and impacts for India, as well as US data that showed that the economy may not need a rate cut imminently, they said.

Elsewhere in Asia, while Shanghai Composite Index, Hang Seng and Kospi were trading on a positive note in their respective early sessions, while Nikkei was trading in the red.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors sold equity worth Rs 331.27 crore, while domestic institutional investors bought shares to the tune of Rs 1,257.86 crore, provisional data available with stock exchanges showed on Monday.

On the currency front, the Indian rupee appreciated 9 paise to 69.82 against the US dollar.

The global oil benchmark Brent crude futures were trading 0.10 per cent lower at 60.88 per barrel.