The Indian equity benchmark indices erased gains in the last hour to end half a percent lower near day's low Wednesday. The financial stocks relatively outperformed as Nifty Bank closed nearly 170 points higher at 37,442.

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The 30-scrip Sensex closed at 58,340, as it declined over 320 points and the Nifty50 index declined nearly 90 points to end at 17,415. The broader markets closed mixed with smallcaps outperforming the benchmarks and midcaps ending in the red. While smallcaps surged over 0.3 percent, midcaps declined over half a percent.

Among the 50 stocks on Nifty, ONGC, Adani Ports, Coal India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and NTPC lead the gains; each scrip rose over 1 to 4 percent. Leading the losses were Tata Consumer, Eicher Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Infosys, and Grasim.

Among sectors on NSE, a strong rally was seen in media stocks. The index ended over 1.5 percent higher. Other indices like Bank and oil & gas also closed in the green. However, major indices like Nifty IT declined nearly 2 percent. Nifty Auto ended over 1.5 percent lower. And Nifty FMCG declined 1 percent. Pharma, metal, realty, and financial services indices also closed the day in the red.

The Nifty Metal index gained over 1 percent supported by the Adani Enterprises, Coal India, and Welspun Corp. While Adani Ent shares were up over 4 percent, Coal India and Welspun were up over 2 percent each. However, the index had declined over half a percent by the time the closing bell rang.

Globally, stocks recovered some lost ground as crude prices lifted oil companies. But rising COVID-19 cases in Europe, weaker economic sentiment in Germany and a bagful of US data ahead of Thanksgiving were a focus for investors.

The MSCI world stock index was flat at 749 points, about 10 points below its lifetime high of a week ago. The STOXX index of 600 European companies was up half a percent, recovering from hitting three-week lows Tuesday due to worries over rising infection rates in Europe leading to lockdowns.

US inflation has surged to three-decade highs, and the minutes from the Fed's last meeting will also be pored over for clues as to whether the central bank will accelerate tapering of its bond-buying stimulus programme when it meets next month.

Share markets were nervous in Asia as trading was buffeted by a step-up in US Treasury yields as well as volatile oil prices in the face of price-cooling moves by the United States and other nations.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.14 percent. Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock price index fell over 1.5 percent as investors returned from a holiday and caught up with global falls the day before.

Oil prices rose, extending gains from the previous session, as investors remained sceptical about the effectiveness of a US-led release of oil from strategic reserves in a bid to cool prices after repeated calls for more crude failed to sway OPEC+ producers.

Brent crude futures reversed early losses to rise 0.5 percent to $82.71 a barrel. US crude futures also rose over half a percent to $78.93 a barrel.

With inputs from Reuters