Benchmark indices opened the day higher, despite Asian markets continuing to see selling pressure with the Japanese Nikkei, down a huge 5 per cent.

The Sensex was trading with gains of 65 points, while the Nifty was up 17 points in trade. Leading the set of gainers was Axis Bank, which jumped a huge 4 per cent in trade. Other notable winners were Infosys, Vedanta and Wipro.

The midcap index came in for some severe selling pressure with Bank of India falling 4 per cent, while other stocks like Canara Bank, Jubilant Foodworks, Just Dial, Allahabad Bank and Syndicate Bank saw cuts of 4 per cent each. Wockhardt Pharma was the biggest loser in trade from the pharma space, dropping a huge 11 per cent.

Tata Steel was down after Moody's downgraded its credit ratings. The stock has seen significant downside since reporting its results.

Almost all of the PSU banking stocks hit fresh 52-week lows, including the likes of Canara Bank, Oriental Bank, Syndicate Bank, Punjab national Bank and Bank of Baroda.

Meanwhile, Asian markets continued to see deep selling pressure with the Japanese Nikkei, The Seoul Composite, the Hong Kong's Hang Sang and the Taiwan Weighted all lower in trade.

GoodReturns.in