Indian equity benchmarks began the day on a lacklustre note amid weakness across global markets, as investors awaited the outcome of two-day deliberations of the Fed's rate-deciding panel due later in the day. Gains in auto and FMCG stocks were offset by losses in IT and financial shares.

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NSE

The Sensex moved within a range of 304.8 points around the flatline in the first few minutes of trade after a flat start, between 59,491.8 and 59,796.6. The Nifty50 gyrated broadly within a 17,750-17,850 band during the session so far.

A total of 24 stocks in the Nifty50 basket began the day in the red. Tech Mahindra, Hindalco, the HDFC twins and ONGC were the top laggards.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys, Larsen & Toubro, JSW Steel and HCL Tech — down around half a percent each — were also among the worst-hit blue-chip stocks.

On the other hand, Sun Pharma, Cipla, PowerGrid, Hero MotoCorp, Mahindra & Mahindra, Adani Ports, Asian Paints, Wipro, UltraTech and Eicher — rising between 0.2 percent and 0.7 percent — were the top gainers.

Banking stocks saw mixed moves, with the Nifty PSU Bank and the Nifty50 Private Bank being the top gainer and top loser among NSE's sectoral indices.

"The overarching trend in the market now is India’s outperformance vis-a-vis other markets, particularly the US. The big question is whether this outperformance can sustain. This is possible since the Indian economy and corporate earnings are outperforming. However, the risk is the high valuation in India, with Nifty50 trading at 22 times the 2022-23 earnings estimates," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services

"The domestic economy-facing segments like financial, auto, capital goods, telecom, cement and FMCG are on a strong wicket," he said.

Central Bank of India shares soared as much as 15.5 percent after the RBI removed the state-run lender from its Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework.

Overall market breadth was largely neutral with a positive bias, as 1,644 stocks rose and 1,500 fell on BSE in early deals.

The rupee inched lower against the US dollar at the open.

Global markets

Equities in other Asian markets tracked Wall Street lower, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.8 percent at the last count. Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 1.4 percent.

S&P 500 futures edged 0.1 percent higher. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 finished 1.1 percent lower, and the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq Composite fell one percent each.

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