Mumbai: The Indian stock market opened flat on Wednesday as investors await the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision.

At around 9:33 a.m., the Sensex was trading at 80,651.44 after declining 33.01 points or 0.04 percent, while the Nifty was trading at 24,328.75 after declining 7.25 points or 0.03 percent.

The market trend remained negative. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 882 stocks were trading in green, while 1,306 stocks were in red.

The focus of global markets will be the Fed decision on Wednesday (US time). A 25 bp rate cut is priced-in by the market.

“The attention will be on the Fed commentary. A significant trend in the Indian market is the outperformance of the broader market where good results are getting appreciated by the market and there is no concern of FII selling,” said experts.

The Nifty Bank index was down 152.85 points, or 0.29 percent, at 52,681.95. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 58,900.55 after dropping 201.35 points, or 0.34 percent. The Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 19,346.40 after dropping 52.05 points, or 0.27 percent.

In the Sensex pack, Tata Motors, Power Grid, L&T, Maruti, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, UltraTech Cement, SBI and NTPC were the top losers. Sun Pharma, HCLTech, Tech Mahindra, TCS, ITC, Bharti Airtel and M&M were the top gainers.

In the Asian markets, except Japan and Bangkok, the markets of China, Hong Kong, Seoul and Jakarta were trading in green.

In US stock markets, the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 ended 0.32 percent and 0.39 percent lower, respectively, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.61 percent down in the previous trading session.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth Rs 6,409.86 crore in India on December 17, while domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 2,706.48 crore on the same day.

According to experts, the near-term market construct has turned weak, with FIIs turning sellers on rallies.

“The trend of FII buying in early December has proved to be, as feared, a flash in the pan. Yesterday’s massive FII sell figure of Rs 6410 crores in the cash market indicates that more selling is in store on market bounces,” they added.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

–IANS