NIFTY50, SENSEX open flat on Wednesday; IT stocks trade lower ahead of US Fed meet

Benchmark equity indices declined in early trade on Wednesday after a record rally, dragged by IT stocks and sluggish global market trends, ahead of the much-awaited US Fed's decision on interest rates.

The BSE Sensex opened lower by 130.24 points to 82,949.42. The NSE Nifty dipped 37.75 points to 25,380.80 on Wednesday. The fall in the key benchmark indices was largely led by weak IT stocks.

Bajaj Finance, ITC, Bajaj Finserv and HDFC Bank were among the gainers on the SENSEX. While Hero MotoCorp, Shriram Finance, Bajaj Finance were the top gainers on the NIFTY50.

The top 5 losers on the NIFTY50 included all the major IT players like TCS, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, and LTIMindtree, with losses in the range of 2.5% to 3% in the market opening session.

The biggest laggards among the 30 Sensex firms were Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies, Asian Paints, and Sun Pharma.

In Asian markets, Tokyo traded higher while Shanghai quoted lower.

The US markets ended mostly higher on Tuesday amid optimism about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. After moving mostly higher early in the session, markets gave back ground over the course of the trading day on Tuesday. The Dow and the S&P 500 reached new record intraday highs in early trading but subsequently pulled back near the unchanged line

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned buyers on Tuesday as they bought equities worth Rs 482.69 crore, according to exchange data.