India Indices Rise Ahead of Fed Policy Outcome; Financials, Banks Shine

By Malvika Gurung

Investing.com -- Indian equity benchmark indices made a higher opening on Wednesday ahead of the much-awaited US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision tonight, following an overnight rally on Wall Street and positive cues from Asian peers, while oil prices declined.

Headlines Nifty50 gained 0.24% to 17,100 mark to 17,149.35 and Sensex rose 129.88 points or 0.22% at the time of writing.

The market fear barometer India VIX declined over 5% in early trade and slid 1.2% while writing to 14.5 levels.

Gains across Dalal Street were led by financial, banking and metal stocks.

Barring Nifty Media , all the sectoral indices under the Nifty umbrella traded with gains, led by a 1.7% jump in Nifty PSU Bank , while Nifty Metal surged almost 1%. Nifty Bank was up 0.1%.

On the Nifty pack, Bajaj Finance (NS: BJFN ), Bajaj Finserv (NS: BJFS ), Hindalco (NS: HALC ), Tata Consumer, HDFC Life Insurance (NS: HDFL ), SBI Life Insurance (NS: SBIL ) and IndusInd Bank (NS: INBK ) were among the top gainers, while Coal India (NS: COAL ), Bharat Petroleum (NS: BPCL ) and Apollo Hospitals (NS: APLH ) exerted pressure.

Key US contracts Dow Futures traded flat and Nasdaq 100 Futures gained 0.11%.

Attention across domestic as well as global markets has shifted to the US FOMC interest rate decision due later on Wednesday, while Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference will be largely looked into for indications on the central bank’s stance in tackling the banking turmoil while balancing inflation.

Read Also: Fed Decision, Powell’s Speech Timing; Investing.com Rate Hike Forecasts