MUMBAI — The
Indian stock market opened flat on Wednesday as investors await the US Federal
Reserve's interest rate decision.
At around 9:33 am, Sensex was trading at 80,651.44 after
declining 33.01 points or 0.04 per cent, while the Nifty was trading at
24,328.75 after declining 7.25 points or 0.03 per cent.
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.
Nifty Bank was down 152.85 points or 0.29 per cent at
52,681.95. Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 58,900.55 after dropping
201.35 points or 0.34 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 19,346.40 after
dropping 52.05 points or 0.27 per cent.
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 per cent and 0.39 per cent lower respectively and Dow Jones
Industrial Average ended 0.61 per cent down in the previous trading session.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth
INR 6,409.86 crore in India on December 17, while domestic institutional investors
bought equities worth INR 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 INR 6410
crores in the cash market indicates that more selling is in store on market
bounces," they added.
