Sensex drops 100 points; Nifty below 10,300 ahead of Fed meet

NEW DELHI: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty opened on a cautious note on Tuesday ahead of a slew of economic releases scheduled later in the day. Investors were wary of the two-day Fed policy that will begin later in the day. Marketmen are largely expecting the US central bank to hike interest rate, which may hurt flows emerging markets including India.

At 9.25 am, the 30-share Sensex was trading 79.63 points, or 0.24 per cent, lower at 33,376. The index fell 27.45 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 10,294.80. Fear gauge India VIX moved up about 1 percentage points to 14.26.

On the macro front, the IIP data for October will be released today. India's industrial production growth slowed in September from a nine-month high in August. Output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), rose 3.8 per cent in September, compared with an upward revised 4.5 per cent in August. Meanwhile, the government will release inflation data based on consumer price index (CPI) for November during the day.

Among Sensex stocks, Asian paints dropped 2.03 per cent to Rs 1,105.15. The company has purchased the remaining 49 per cent stake in kitchen solution provider Sleek International for Rs 50 crore. Asian Paints had in 2013, acquired 51 per cent stake in Sleek group to foray into home improvement segment eased today.

HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra bank and Bharti Airtel fell up to 1 per cent. ITC, SBI, Bajaj Auto and Coal were other index losers.

On the flipside, Dr Reddy's Labs rose 4.22 per cent to Rs 2,286. ONGC, Lupin and Adani Ports added 1.93 per cent, 0.82 per cent and 0.78 per cent, respectively.