Indian equity shares hit a record high for a sixth consecutive session on Wednesday before succumbing to profit-taking as blue-chips, including lenders, rose on hopes the US Federal Reserve could take a dovish stance in its post-meeting statement later in the day.

NSE's volatility index, the Indian equivalent of the VIX fear gauge, surged 9.6 per cent ahead of Fed's policy statement at 1400 GMT.

The broader NSE index rose for a ninth consecutive session, matching its winning streak in March-April 2014. It closed up 3.8 points or 0.04 per cent at 8,914.30. Earlier in the day, it hit a record high of 8,985.05.

The BSE index closed lower by 11.86 points or 0.04 per cent at 29,559.18, after gaining as much as 0.73 per cent to a record high of 29,786.32.

Among BSE sectoral indices, consumer durables index gained the most by 4.6 per cent, followed by realty 1.69 per cent, oil & gas 1.48 per cent and IT 1.00 per cent. On the other hand, capital goods index was down 1.45 per cent, followed by metal 1.43 per cent, auto 0.72 per cent and banking 0.31 per cent.

Major Sensex gainers were HDFC 2.21%, Reliance 1.92%, Wipro 1.48%, SBIN 1.41% and TCS 1.27%, while the top five losers were Bharti Airtel 4.99%, SSLT 2.9%, Tata Motors 2.64%, L&T 2.51% and Tata Steel 1.8%.

European shares dipped in early trading on Wednesday, with Greek stocks extending their sell-off sparked by the victory of leftwing Syriza party in Sunday’s election.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan hit a four-month high as soft business investment and corporate earnings stoked talk the Fed would have to acknowledge the more difficult environment in its policy statement at 1400 GMT.

"Fed meeting outcome would be dovish given its officials now seem to be more worried about rest of the world's outlook," said G. Chokkalingam, founder of Equinomics, a research and fund advisory firm based in Mumbai.

The Reserve Bank of India's policy review on February 2 and the federal budget on February 28 are the next key events that markets would start pricing in, investors said.

comment COMMENT NOW