Markets turn flat after firm opening; Tata Motors dips 1%

Markets trimmed early gains as investors turned cautious ahead of the outcome of the US Fed meet which ends later today

Markets trimmed early gains after investors turned cautious at higher levels and booked profits ahead of the outcome of the US Fed policy meet which ends later today.

At 9:35AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 110 points at 26,602 and the 50-share Nifty was up 36 points at 7,968.

Meanwhile, foreign funds sold shares worth Rs 829 crore in the cash segment on Tuesday.

The rupee was trading higher at Rs 60.98 against the previous close of Rs 61.05. The rupee recovered on Tuesday from a one-month low hit in the previous session on bargain-hunting, but sentiment was broadly cautious ahead of the outcome of the Federal Reserve's meeting.

Asian shares fimed up on Wednesday tracking overnight gains on Wall Street and on expectations that the US Fed won't raise interest rates soon. Japanese shares were trading with marginal gains while Shanghai Composite and Straits Times  were up 0.6% each while Hang Seng shares surged over 1%.

US markets ended higher on Tuesday after the US Fed in its two-day policy meet which started on Tuesday signalled that it would not raise interest rates as of now. The Dow Jones hit a fresh high intra-day to end up 0.6% at 17,131.97, the tech-laden Nasdaq endedup 0.8% at 4,552.76 and the S&P 500 recorded its highest gain in a month to close 0.8% higher at 1,998.98.

BSE Consumer Durables, Healthcare, Metal and Realty indices were the top gainers up over 1% each.

In the Sensex pack, index heavyweights led the gains with Reliance Ind, ICICI Bank and Infosys up over 0.5% each. TCS was up nearly 0.9%.

Other Sensex gainers include, L&T, Sun Pharma, HDFC and Tata Motors.

FMCG majors ITC and Hindustan Unilever were among the Sensex losers in early trades.

In the financial pack, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI were up 0.5% each.

Maruti Suzuki was down 0.7%. The company informed that its Manesar facility crosses 25 Lakh production milestone. The Manesar facility achieved the feat in 7 years and 8 months. A glistening grey Swift Zxi was the 2.5 milionth vehicle that rolled out from the Manesar B Line, the company said in a release.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap index were trading flat with negative bias.

Market breadth was weak with 1,029 advances and 815 declines on the BSE.