Nifty, Sensex trade flat in morning trade as street awaits Fed announcement, big earnings

• From the Sensex pack, UltraTech Cement, Tata Motors, JSW Steel and M&M are the gainers in trade.
• ITC, Tech Mahindra, Asian Paints and Infosys are under pressure.
• FIIs were sellers on Monday as they sold equities worth Rs 82.96 crore, according to exchange data.

Equity benchmark indices, the Sensex and the Nifty, traded on a flat note on Tuesday morning as investors remained on the sidelines ahead of the Federal Reserve rate decision and busy week of corporate earnings. Foreign fund outflows and surging crude oil prices also weighed on sentiments.

At the time of publishing, the 3 0-share BSE Sensex is trading 40 points in the red while the the broader NSE Nifty is hovering around 19,670.

"Globally markets will be keenly watching the Fed commentary since a 25 bp hike in rate is already known and discounted by the market," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, in his market outlook.

On the domestic front, he said, the expected announcement of quarterly results by some bluechip firms will impact investor sentiment.

A slew of quarterly results are due this week including Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Axis Bank, Cipla, Dr Reddy's, Bajaj Finance, Tech Mahindra that will influence stock prices and market sentiments.

"Market is likely to consolidate within a band for now and wait for triggers to move, either up or down," Vijaykumar said.

From the Sensex pack, UltraTech Cement, Tata Motors, JSW Steel and Mahindra & Mahindra were major winners, gaining up to 1.81%.

On the other hand, ITC, Tech Mahindra, Asian Paints and Infosys were the laggards, trading with a loss of up to 2.43%.

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Of the 30 Sensex stocks, 18 were trading in green while on the 50-stock index Nifty, 34 were in the positive territory.

On Monday, BSE Sensex fell 299.48 points or 0.45% to settle at 66,384.78. The NSE Nifty fell by 72.65 points or 0.37% to end at 19,672.35.

Asian markets were trading in green. Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 0.29% while Hang Seng advanced 3.12%.

European markets finished mixed with the UK's FTSE 100 gaining 0.19% and Germany's DAX rising 0.08%. The CAC 40 of France lost 0.07%.

The US markets ended broadly higher on Monday with the S&P 500 registering a gain of 0.40%.

Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.13% higher at USD 82.85 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were sellers on Monday as they sold equities worth Rs 82.96 crore, according to exchange data.