Markets opening bell: Indices open flat; Sensex at 59,707; Nifty above 17,800

Markets were treading water on Wednesday as investors braced for a hefty rate hike from the US Federal Reserve and clues on further hikes.The NSE Nifty 50 index rose 0.04% to 17,822, while the S&P BSE Sensex was flat at 59,732.61 at 0347 GMT.The Fed is set to announce its decision at the end of a two-day policy meeting later in the day. Rate futures traders are pricing in an 81% chance of a 75-basis-point hike and a 19% probability of a jumbo 100 bps increase. Meanwhile, government is in no hurry to push inflation – now hovering near 7% and eight-year highs – back to the central bank’s 4% medium-term target, for fear that aggressive rate hikes could hurt economic growth, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.Among stock, shares of Central Bank of India jumped 12% after the Reserve Bank of India took the state-owned commercial bank off its prompt corrective action list.

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