FIRST TRADE: Equity indices open lower; Sensex down 75 points, Nifty near 25,400

Indian equities in Wednesday's trade opened with minor cut tracking mixed Asian markets. At the start, Sensex was down 0.09 per cent or 75.36 points at 83,004.3, while the Nifty traded down by 0.08 per cent or 19.1 points at 25,399.45.

Sectorally, IT stocks turned out to be the laggards, while realty and oil & gas stocks remained upbeat.

Within the Nifty pack, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj twins, Shriram Finance and Ultratech Cement, while laggards included Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Wipro, TCS and LTIMindtree.

Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities said, "As Modi 3.0 completes 100 days with Nifty and Sensex up 8%, all eyes are on whether the Federal Reserve will cut rates by 25 or 50 basis points."

 Vijaykumar suggests the time is  favourable for reducing the exposure to mid and small caps and increasing the exposure to largecaps. This strategy will play out well in the medium to long run.

Asian markets

Most Asian stocks traded in a tight range as investors widely looked upon to the Fed meeting outcome later today where the US central bank is seen to trim interest rates. Trading volume also remained thin given the trading holidays in  Hong Kong and South Korea, while Chinese markets moved little.