Nifty slips below 8,800; financials drag

Financials were among the top losers in the last hour of trade

Benchmark indices have erased eraly gains and have turned weak as investors have turned cautious ahead of US Fed outcome.

At 14:20 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 57 points at 28,466 and the Nifty50 was trading 16 points lower at 8,760.

Top losers from the Sensex pack are ICICI Bank, ONGC, SBI, BHEL and ITC, all falling between 1%-2%.
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(Updated at 12:35pm)
Markets continued to trade higher in noon trades on Wednesday amid a rally in Asian stocks after the Bank of Japan at its meeting today decided to keep its deposit rate unchanged.

At 12:35pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 138 points at 28,661 and the Nifty50 was trading   points higher at 8,818. In the broader markets, BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.4%-0.7% each. Market breadth was positive with 1549 gainers and 872 losers on the BSE.

Foreign institutional investors turned net sellers after they sold equity shares worth Rs 1,147 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

The Bank of Japan at its policy meet today maintained the 0.1% negative interest rate on deposits from banks and financials institutions. Japan's central bank also said it would purchases of long-term government bonds with an incremental 80 trillion yen per year.

Asian markets recovered from their intra-day lows post the announcement from the Bank of Japan. The benchmark Nikkei emerging as the top gainer up nearly 2%. Hang Seng was up 0.6% while Shanghai Composite was trading with marginal gains.

Gains were led by index heavweights with Infosys up nearly 1% while ITC and HDFC rose over 0.4% each.

Tata Motors was up 1.1%. Tata Motors-owned British brand Jaguar on Wednesday launched the all-new XF luxury saloon with prices starting at Rs 49.5 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

Other gainers include, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Auto, Axis Bank and Asian Paints among others.

ICICI Bank was marginally down after the initial public offering of its insurance arm, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Corporation received a lukewarm response from investors. The Rs 6,000-crore initial public offering (IPO) ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company was subscribed just around 52% till Tuesday, a day ahead of its close.

Among others, Indoco Remedies has gained 4% after the pharmaceutical company announced it has acquired the manufacturing facility of Micro Labs located at Baddi.

TeamLease Services was trading higher by 5% after the company announced that it will acquire Nichepro Technologies for an enterprise value of up to Rs 29.5 crore.