Equity benchmarks erased early gains and turned negative by Wednesday afternoon, with the Sensex down 241.66 points or 0.29 per cent at 84,424.62 and the Nifty declining 63.75 points or 0.25 per cent to 25,775.90 as of 12:45 pm, ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy announcement later in the day.

The Sensex opened lower at 84,607.49 against its previous close of 84,666.28, touching an intraday high of 85,020.34 before sliding to a low of 84,421.29. The Nifty opened at 25,864.05 compared to its previous close of 25,839.65, with the index reaching a high of 25,947.65 and a low of 25,769.10 during the session.

Market breadth remained moderately positive with 2,044 stocks advancing against 1,919 declining on the BSE, while 192 stocks remained unchanged. As many as 63 stocks hit 52-

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