Indian equity benchmarks opened on a flat to positive note on Wednesday amid weakness across global peers as investors continued to digest a storm in Chinese shares ahead of the outcome of the Federal Reserve meeting.

Share Market Live

NSE

The Sensex index opened 0.18 percent, or 94.93 points, higher at 52,673.69, and the broader Nifty50 benchmark began the day at 15,761.55, up 15.10 points, or 0.10 percent. In the broader markets, midcap and smallcap indices traded lower.

IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel, Divi's Labs, Coal India and L&T were the top gainers in early deals, while Tata Consumer, Nestle India, Dr Reddy and the HDFC twins led the losses.

Among the sectors tracked by NSE, the banking, financial services, pharma and metal indices traded lower. The Nifty Auto index bucked the trend and moved higher.

Globally, Asian shares stayed stuck at seven-month lows on Wednesday as regulatory crackdowns in China roiled stocks in the technology, property and education sectors, leaving international investors bruised.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.35 percent, having fallen in each of the three previous sessions.

Investors wondered whether the markets would stabilise in China and whether the delta variant of Covid-19 will hinder the global economic recovery.

The declines in Asian equities on Tuesday spread to other markets overnight, causing Wall Street to retreat a little from the record highs set earlier in the week. Tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slumped over 1 percent.

In currency markets, the US dollar sat below recent highs after a month-long rally, the safe-haven yen gained and the risk-sensitive Australian and New Zealand dollars dropped back.

Oil prices rose as industry data showed US crude and product inventories fell more sharply than expected last week, outweighing worries about the consequences of surging coronavirus cases.

Gold was slightly lower, with spot trading at $1,798.45 per ounce.

With inputs from Reuters

Follow our market blog for live updates