Sensex Falls Over 100 Points, Nifty Struggles Below 10,100

The BSE Sensex started Tuesday's session on a weak note, falling as much as 112 points to 32,810 in early deals amid weakness in other Asian markets. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) benchmark index Nifty shed 45 points to touch 10,049 on the downside. PSU banks, metal and real estate stocks, down around 1-2 per cent, weighed on the indices. Vedanta was down around 7 per cent in early morning trading. Among other top losers on the Nifty 50 were Cipla, Hindalco and Coal India, down between 1.2 per cent and 1.7 per cent. The markets have closed in the red for the past five sessions, with the BSE Sensex shedding 994 points.

Shares in other Asian markets fell on Tuesday, as investors braced for new Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's first policy meeting starting later in the day and amid concerns that US President Donald Trump could impose additional protectionist trade measures. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.4 per cent and Japan's Nikkei fell 1.0 per cent. Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 closed 1.42 per cent lower and the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.84 per cent - the worst day in five weeks for both the indices.

At 9:17 am, 32 stocks on the 50-scrip Nifty were trading in the negative zone.