Indian equity benchmarks ended the choppy day of trade on flat note with negative bias on Wednesday, as investors girded for another round of geopolitical tensions after US President Donald Trump threatened to annihilate North Korea. Frontline gauges swung between green and red throughout the day, as traders remained cautious ahead of outcome of two-day Fed policy review later in the day. Sentiments also remained dampened with SBI Research stating that economy has been on a downslide since September 2016 and the slowdown is real and not technical, calling for more public spending to arrest the slide. The report advocated upping of spends by the government as a solution to the problem at hand. Meanwhile, exporters fearing that a staggering Rs 65,000 crore could get stuck in GST refunds have asked the government to fast-track the refund process and avoid further deterioration in their liquidity situation. The 22nd meeting of the GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, will be held on October 6 to deliberate on GSTN glitches and ironing out issues faced by exporters. However, traders took some solace with report that the government may soon unveil a package of measures to speed up growth, generate employment, lift exports and step up investment in infrastructure. A broad framework to boost the economy was discussed in a meeting of ministers and officials chaired by finance minister Arun Jaitley late Tuesday evening as the government grappled with a slump in growth. Traders also get some sense of relief with World Bank India chief Junaid Ahmad's statement that effective implementation of the new tax regime will help the economy achieve 8% plus growth and described GST a ‘tectonic shift'. Junaid Ahmad, further highlighting the positive impact of GST, said that the economic corridors of India will change on the back of the new tax regime. Finally, the BSE Sensex slipped 1.86 points or 0.01% to 32,400.51, while the CNX Nifty was down by 6.40 points or 0.06% to 10,141.15.

The US markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday, with the Dow industrials and the S&P 500 carving out fresh all-time highs, as the Federal Reserve announced that, for the first time in nine years, it would start reducing the size of its $4.5 trillion asset portfolio commencing in October. The US central bank kept interest rates unchanged, as widely expected, but said it would start to shrink its balance sheet by $10 billion a month. The Fed also signaled a December rate increase remains on the table as the central bank embarks on an unprecedented unwind of crisis-era asset purchases that had helped to buoy markets over the past decade. The Fed committed to reducing the bonds they own at a pace of $10 billion a month and increasing that pace by $10 billion every three months to a maximum pace of $50 billion a month, or $600 billion a year. The Fed kept its targeted federal-funds rate between 1% to 1.25%, and said the devastation caused by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma isn't likely to materially alter the course of the economy over the medium term, underscoring the central bank's determination to normalize interest-rate policy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 41.79 points or 0.19 percent to 22,412.59, the S&P 500 edged higher by 1.59 points or 0.06 percent to 2,508.24, while the Nasdaq lost 5.28 points or 0.08 percent to 6,456.04.

Crude oil futures shrugging off the report of significant build in US oil inventories, ended higher on Wednesday. Inventory data was overshadowed by growing expectations that Opec will decide to extend its agreement to cut oil output. Meanwhile, a report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed crude stockpiles rose by roughly 4.6m barrels in the week ended Sept. 15. Gasoline inventories, fell by roughly 2.13m barrels, while distillate stockpiles fell by 5.7m barrels, topping expectations of a decline of 1.6m barrels. Benchmark crude oil futures for November delivery ended higher by 79 cents or 1.6 percent at $50.69 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for November delivery ended up by 1.99 percent to $56.24 a barrel on the ICE.

Snapping its previous session's losses, Indian rupee recovered marginally against dollar on Wednesday, on fresh selling of the US currency by exporters and banks. Besides, weakness of dollar against the some major currencies overseas too gave the rupee some relief. However, gains were limited with SBI's Research report stating that economy has been on a downslide since September 2016 and the slowdown is real and not technical, calling for more public spending to arrest the slide. On the global front, dollar edged closer to 2-1/2-year lows hit earlier this month on Wednesday, as investors waited to see whether ratesetters in the United States would signal tighter policy or hold off because of tepid inflation data. Finally, the rupee ended at 64.27, 5 paise stronger from its previous close of 64.32 on Tuesday.

The FIIs as per Wednesday's data were net sellers in equity segment, while they were net buyers in debt segment. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 3077.03 crore against gross selling of Rs 4654.94 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 1016.99 crore with gross sales of Rs 152.84 crore.

The US markets turned into consolidation mood and made a mixed closing in the last session, as traders digested the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement. Fed left interest rates unchanged as widely expected but signaled another rate hike is likely this year. The Asian markets have made mostly a positive start and some indices are up by over half a percent in early deals, though few are in red too on Fed's hawkish tone. The Indian markets after a lackluster day of trade ended flat in the last session ahead of the Fed decision. Today, the start is likely to remain cautious on mixed global cues, though US Fed forecasts only two rate increases in 2019 and one in 2020, but it would stick to the schedule for normalising balance sheet by trimming its bond portfolio from October. On the domestic front, there will be concern with some report that advance tax payments by top corporate for September quarter has increased only marginally. Traders will however be getting some support with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's hint at a package of measures to boost the economy, while virtually ruling out any cut in duties on petroleum products to check the spike in fuel prices. Jaitley said the government is considering additional measures to bolster economy that has hit a three-year low of 5.7 percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal. He said an announcement with regard to the additional steps will be made after consulting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There will be some action in auto sector stocks, as Moody's Investors Service in its latest report has said that car sales in India are expected to grow by nine per cent this year riding on the back of GST regime as well as new product launches.

Support and Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)

Nifty Top volumes

• IOC has paid Rs 2,935 crore to the Government of Odisha towards VAT payment for the period November 2015 to July 2017.
• Bharti Airtel has lost 2 lakh users in August 2017.
• L&T's Hydrocarbon Division has bagged a major pipeline contract with a value close to Rs 1,700 crore from Kuwait Oil Company.
• Sun Pharmaceutical Industries' one of its wholly owned subsidiaries has received approval from the USFDA for a new label for Odomzo.