FIRST TRADE: Indices mildly higher; Sensex up 20 points, Nifty at 24,465

Indian equities in Wednesday's trade tracking the likely policy outcome later this week by the RBI started mildly higher . At the start, Sensex was up 0.02 per cent or 20 points at 80,865.77, while the NSE Nifty was up 0.03 per cent ot 7.55 points at 24,464.7.

Sectorally, there was across-the-board buying with weakness only in the pharma and media indices.

Nifty Bank also continued to trade in the green led by gains in counters including HDFC Bank, Canara Bank and AU Bank among others.

Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said, "The signals from the market are a bit confusing. It has ignored the sharp slowdown in Q2 GDP growth. It is remaining resilient despite the massive FII selling. There are many likely headwinds from the Trump presidency. The valuations are elevated with Nifty trading around 20 times estimated FY26 earnings. In this context, investors should adopt a cautious investment strategy with asset allocation as the underlying principle."

Since the market has been resilient amidst challenges, it makes sense to remain invested. Those investors with lower risk appetite can think of moving some money from the overvalued mid and smallcaps to largecaps and also to debt, added Vijaykumar.

FIIs turning buyers is a positive which can keep the largecaps resilient. In the previous session, FIIs bought equity worth Rs 3,426.39 crore in the cash market.

Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities mentioned tha GIFT Nifty signals a cautious start today, with major focus on Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech, while political tension rises as Donald Trump pressures BRICS to avoid new currency moves. US Steel shares fell 8% after Trump opposed a $15B takeover by Japan's Nippon Steel.

 Key catalysts include the RBI MPC decision on Friday and US non-farm payroll data, he added.
 

Asian markets 

The key MSCI Asian ex Japan index traded in the red- down 0.4 per cent at 584.09. Hang Seng and Straits Times were up at the last count, while the Japan's Nikkei was down by as much as 0.4 per cent.