Indian equity benchmarks opened flat amid choppy trade on Wednesday, tracking nervousness across global markets ahead of what could be another aggressive hike in COVID-era interest rates by the Fed. Investors awaited more of earnings from India Inc for domestic cues, as Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors geared up to report their quarterly numbers later in the day.

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NSE

The Sensex gyrated within a 203.1-point range around the flatline and the Nifty50 moved within a broad range of 16,450-16,500 in the first few minutes of trade.

As many as 31 stocks in the Nifty50 basket began the day in the green. ONGC, HDFC Life, Larsen & Toubro, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel and Tech Mahindra were among the top gainers, rising one percent each in early deals.

On the other hand, UPL, Hero MotoCorp, HUL, Titan and HDFC Bank were among the top blue-chip laggards.

Bharti Airtel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, JSW Steel, HDFC and Britannia were also among the laggards.

"The Fed's announcement on interest rates is unlikely to impact equity markets in a big way since the most likely outcome of a 75 bps rate hike has been discounted. The market is swinging between fears of an imminent US recession on one side and hopes of the US avoiding a sharp economic slowdown on the other," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

"Early April-June results indicate a good performance by companies with leading banks, capital goods companies, paintmakers and mid-cap IT firms delivering impressive numbers," he added.

Overall market breadth was largely neutral, reflecting indecisiveness on Dalal Street, as 1,238 stocks rose and 1,361 fell on BSE.

Meanwhile, the rupee edged lower against the US dollar. Last week, it had hit a record low of 80.06 against the greenback.

Global markets

Equities in other Asian markets were largely in the red following weakness on Wall Street overnight, as the FOMC began a two-day policy meeting. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.9 percent, though Japan's Nikkei eked out a gain of 0.1 percent.

S&P 500 futures were up 0.7 percent. On Tuesday, the three main Wall Street indices fell around 1-2 percent each.

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