Sensex down by more than 500 points

New Delhi, March 19 (IANS) Sensex fell more than 500 points on Tuesday as the markets await commentary from the US Federal Reserve.

BSE Sensex is trading at 72,161.54 points, down 586.88 points. Nestle is down more than 3 per cent while TCS is down more than 2 per cent after buzz of a block deal in the stock.

V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said in the near-term a change in the global market construct will happen if the Fed sends a hawkish message stronger than market expectations. This cannot be ruled out since the declining trend in US inflation has been arrested in the last two months and the Fed is always known to respond to “incoming data and evolving outlook.” The spike in the dollar index and the US bond yields reflect this concern.

Investors may wait for clarity to emerge on the Fed response on Wednesday.

The resilience of the US market supported by the surprisingly robust economy is the foundation of the ongoing global market. The end of the decades-long deflation in Japan and the Nikkei index posting record highs also has been a supporting factor, he said.

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities, said investors in Asia will be closely monitoring China, where the top securities regulator said the defaulted developer at the heart of the nation’s real estate crisis falsely inflated revenue by more than $78 billion in the two years leading up to its failure.

Shares in the Asian-Pacific region were trading under pressure as investors await cues from various central bank decisions over the week, starting with the Bank of Japan, he said.