Benchmark indices stayed on the backfoot on Tuesday after the previous session’s rout as risk-off sentiment prevailed amid weak global cues and persistent foreign fund outflows.

Investors lost their appetite for stocks because of the flow of lacklustre macroeconomic data and a fraught rupee that hovered close to its lifetime low, traders said.

Global investors were in wait-and-watch mode ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s policy decision on Wednesday amid expectations of accelerated rate hikes to cool scorching inflation, they added.

Sliding for the third straight session, the 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 153.13 points or 0.29 per cent to settle at 52,693.57 — its lowest since July 30, 2021. On similar lines, the NSE Nifty declined by 42.30 points or 0.27 per cent to end at 15732.10.

Wall Street, meanwhile, is wobbling between gains and losses Tuesday in its first trading after tumbling into a bear market on worries about a fragile economy and rising rates. Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Seoul and Tokyo ended lower, while Hong Kong and Shanghai bounced back

The S&P 500 was 0.1 per cent higher in early trading after a couple big companies flexed financial strength with stronger profits and payouts to shareholders. It was an unsteady gain, though, with the index swinging between a 0.1 per cent loss and a 0.8 per cent rise within the first half hour.

The rupee surrendered early gains to close unchanged at its lifetime low of 78.04 against the dollar on Tuesday.

With inputs from AP