The Sensex and the Nifty fell for a second consecutive session on Tuesday as companies posting disappointing earnings such as Lupin fell, while sentiment remained cautious ahead of the US Federal Reserve's two-day policy meet later in the day.

Investors will be looking for further clues as to the timing of any US rate hike, which they expect could happen as early as December.

Also, earnings and the expiry of monthly derivative contracts on Thursday dampened the domestic sentiment.

"(Earnings) numbers, FOMC meeting, world market cues and (derivatives) expiry are the factors weighing on the market," said Alex Mathews, head of research at Geojit BNP Paribas.

The 30-share barometer ended lower by 108.52 points or 0.4 per cent at 27,253.44 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty ended down by 27.65 points or 0.33 per cent at 8,232.90.

Among BSE sectoral indices, consumer durables index fell the most by 1.43 per cent, followed by infrastructure 0.77 per cent, capital goods 0.7 per cent and PSU 0.66 per cent, while auto index was up 0.38 per cent and FMCG 0.1 per cent.

Lupin slumped 5.25 per cent after reporting second-quarter net profit much below market estimates, due to lower revenue from the United States, its largest market.

Meanwhile, Housing Development Finance Corp fell 2.87 per cent, adding to its 1.9 per cent loss on Monday after its July-September results fell short of expectations.

Axis Bank reversed losses and ended higher by 0.03 per cent after reporting a 19 percent increase in second-quarter profit, in line with estimates, while its bad loans remained stable.

Maruti Suzuki was up 2.44 per cent after the carmaker said quarterly net profit rose about 42 per cent from a year earlier.

Top five Sensex gainers were Maruti (+2.44%), Sun Pharma (+1.88%), Wipro (+1.04%), HDFC Bank (+0.88%) and Bajaj Auto (+0.57%), while the major losers were Lupin (-5.25%), ONGC (-3.07%), HDFC (-2.87%), GAIL (-2.24%) and BHEL (-1.42%).

European stocks fell on Tuesday, moving further away from last week’s two-month high after a drop in the shares of BASF and Novartis weighed on markets.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, which had risen to a two-month high on Friday after a Chinese rate cut drove up world stock markets, declined 0.3 per cent, as did the euro zone’s blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index.

Asian share markets paused for breath on Tuesday after a four-week romp higher, as investors took cover ahead of central bank meetings in the United States and Japan later in the week.

Moves were modest with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan off 0.07 per cent. Japan's Nikkei dipped 0.1 per cent, though remained near a two-month high.

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