<p>The main equity indexes, Sensex and Nifty, saw only slight advances in early trading on Wednesday as investors awaited clues from the US Federal Reserve on the trajectory of interest rates, while Asian markets displayed varied tendencies.</p>
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<p>The wider Nifty edged up 21.65 points, or 0.1 percent, to 22,218.60 points, while the 30-share Sensex increased 60.05 points, or 0.08 percent, to 73,117.45 points.</p>
<p>Of the Nifty’s components, 29 were trading higher than the group of 17 firms in the Sensex.</p>
<p>In early trades, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, and Bharti Airtel all saw increases of more than 1%, but JSW Steel saw an increase of more than 2%.</p>
<p>Asian markets showed varied results; the Nikkei 225 in Japan was trading almost flat, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong and the SSE Composite Index in China both saw increases.</p>
<p>US equities closed down on Tuesday, according to Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities, as investors awaited Nvidia’s earnings announcement on Wednesday and fresh hints about interest rates from Federal Reserve officials after last week’s inflation statistics.</p>
<p>“US Fed officials will be speaking publicly, coupled with Wednesday afternoon’s release of minutes from the central bank’s January 30-31 meeting,” he said in a pre-market open note.</p>
<p>European markets ended the week in mixed shape.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, the Sensex surged 349.24 points to finish at 73,057.40 points, while the Nifty gained 74.70 points to complete the day at 22,196.95 points, keeping both indexes in positive territory for the sixth consecutive session.</p>
<p>“India is not affected by the major emerging market concern of increasing bond rates in the US because FIIs have been compelled to scale down their selling because retail optimism and continuous DII (Domestic Institutional Investor) purchasing have entirely neutralized them.</p>
<p>The market’s current advance is mostly being supported by this strong domestic purchasing, according to V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.</p>
<p>According to exchange statistics, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) sold stocks worth Rs 1,335.51 crore on Tuesday, making them net sellers.</p>