Sensex has dropped 375 points and the Nifty has dropped below 15,700

On Tuesday, equity benchmarks declined for the third day in a row, with the Sensex down 375 points in early trade as investors remained cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting decision. The domestic equities markets have been weighed down by unabated foreign money outflows.

At 52,471.98, the 30-share BSE benchmark was down 374.72 points. To 15,674.25, the Nifty dropped 100.15 points.

Asian Paints, Tech Mahindra, IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, Titan and HDFC were the major laggards in early trade within the Sensex pack. Bharti Airtel, Power Grid, NTPC, M&M, and Bajaj Finserv, on the other side, were among the gainers.

Markets in Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai were trading down in mid-session trades elsewhere in Asia. On Monday, stock markets in the United States finished substantially lower.

On Monday, the 30-share BSE Sensex fell 1,456.74 points, or 2.68 percent, to 52,846.70. To 15,774.40, the Nifty fell 427.40 points, or 2.64 percent.

“The Fed is scheduled to make its next policy announcement on Wednesday and investors will be highly focused on any clues for how aggressive the central bank intends to be in raising rates,” said Mohit Nigam, Head – PMS, Hem Securities.

Meanwhile, Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, slipped 0.02 percent to USD 122.24 a barrel.

According to exchange data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market on Monday, selling shares worth Rs 4,164.01 crore.