Equity indices shed early losses, financials and banking stocks lead

Equity benchmark indices witnessed a sharp recovery in the last hour of trading session on Wednesday and closed in the green led by a rally in financial and banking scrips.

The BSE S&P Sensex closed 169 points or 0.42 per cent higher at 40,795 while the Nifty 50 was up by 37 points or 0.31 per cent at 11,971.

Except for Nifty auto, IT and pharma, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty financial service up by 1.7 per cent, private bank by 1.3 per cent and PSU bank by 0.6 per cent.

Among stocks, Bajaj Finserv gained by 4.1 per cent to close at Rs 6,108.10 per share and Bajaj Finance by 2.8 per cent at Rs 3,364.50.

IndusInd Bank advanced by 2.4 per cent, Axis Bank by 2.3 per cent and ICICI Bank by 2.3 per cent while home loan lender HDFC moved up by 1.2 per cent.

However, Wipro slipped by nearly 7 per cent to Rs 349.40 per share on profit booking, a day after reporting improved performance in the second quarter of FY21 on several parameters.

The other prominent losers were energy majors like Coal India, NTPC, ONGC, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, IndianOil Corporation and Power Grid Corporation.

Meanwhile, Asian equities were mixed as halted Covid-19 vaccine trials and an impasse in US fiscal aid package talks soured risk appetite.

Johnson & Johnson said a day earlier it was pausing a Covid-19 vaccine trial due to a study participant's unexplained illness.

Eli Lilly and Co later said it too had paused the clinical trial of its Covid-19 antibody treatment due to a safety concern, leading the US equity market to deepen losses.

South Korea's Kospi stumbled by 0.94 per cent while Japan's Nikkie was up by 0.11 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained by 0.07 per cent.

( With inputs from ANI )