Indian Shares Extend Losses Ahead Of Fed Decision

(RTTNews) - Indian shares ended lower on Tuesday, extending the previous session's sharp slide due to uncertainty over a trade deal with the United States and amid caution ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision.

A cautious undertone prevailed ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision on Wednesday, where the U.S. central bank is broadly expected to deliver a 25 basis-point rate cut despite existing divisions with the committee.

Traders remain anxious about the Federal Reserve's future easing pace, given conflicting trends of a cooling job market and sticky inflation, as well as gaps in the data from the government shutdown.

Investors also reacted to media reports suggesting that U.S. President Donald Trump may impose additional tariffs on rice exports from nations, including India.

The benchmark BSE Sensex ended the session down 436.41 points, or 0.51 percent, at 84,666.28. after having tumbled to a low of 84,383 earlier.

The broader NSE Nifty index hit an intraday low of 25,728 before recovering some lost ground to end down 120.90 points, or 0.47 percent, at 25,839.65.

The mid-cap and small-cap indexes on the BSE gained 0.6 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively after suffering heavy losses in recent sessions.

The market breadth was strong on the BSE, with 2,619 shares rising while 1,552 shares fell and 160 shares closed unchanged.

Asian Paints led losses to close 4.6 percent lower while Reliance Industries, TCS, UltraTech, Bajaj Finance, TMPV, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, Maruti Suzuki India, Tata Steel, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra fell 1-2 percent.

Globally, Asian markets ended mostly lower while European stocks struggled for direction in early trade ahead of Wednesday's interest-rate decision from the Fed.

Oil prices were a tad lower, extending losses from the previous session as traders looked ahead to the release of key monthly reports from OPEC and the IEA for additional clues on supply and demand trends. Gold consolidated around $4,200 per ounce in cautious trade.