New Delhi, March 19: Indian stock market indices traded in the red at Tuesday's opening bell over reported concerns of overheating in the small and midcaps space coupled with profit booking by investors.

India's benchmark indices rebounded slightly on Monday from a one-session fall to end the first session of the week in the green.

At 9.19 am, soon after the opening bell, Sensex was at 72,374 points down 374 points or 0.5 per cent, Nifty was at 21,943 points, down 112 points or 0.5 per cent. Among the widely tracked Nifty 50 stocks, 13 advanced and the rest 37 declined at the time of filing this report.

Going ahead into this week, monetary policy outcome of US Federal Reserve will be closely monitored. Investors and traders will get some fresh clues on the future glide path of interest rates in these major economies.

In specific, markets will closely watch Fed Chair Jerome Powell's comments on rate cuts and the US economy's health amid growing concerns of a rebound in inflation.

The US Federal Reserve in its January meeting voted to leave the key interest rate unchanged at 5.25-5.50 per cent, keeping the policy rate unchanged for the fourth straight time on a trot.

"Indian equity market rose slightly (Monday) in cautious trade as oil prices continued to rise due to supply fears and investors waited for signals from a number of central bank meetings. Furthermore, given the recent robust inflation data from the US, investors are placing bets that there is less chance that the US Federal Reserve will lower interest rates for the first time in Jun 2024," said ICRA Analytics.

That said, foreign portfolio investors continue to remain net buyers in India.

Foreign portfolio investors who had aggressively sold Indian stocks and turned net sellers in the Indian equity market in January 2024 became net buyers in February and March.

This has also likely buoyed the stocks of late. So far in March, they bought stocks in India worth Rs 41,483 crore, the latest data from the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) showed.

Meanwhile, shares in Wall Street's closed higher on Monday, while investors also waited for the US Federal Reserve's meeting this week.

(ANI)

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