The Indian equity benchmark indices opened higher on Wednesday led by gains in private banks, pharma and metal stocks. Weak global cues amid rising tensions between US and China capped gains in the market.

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The Sensex opened 183.81 points or 0.60 percent higher at 30,793.11, while the Nifty50 index opened at 9,082.20, up 53.15 points or 0.59 percent.

Rally in index heavyweights such as HDFC twins, Kotak Mahindra Bank, L&T among others supported Nifty above 9,000 level.

Broader indices Nifty Smallcap100 and Nifty Midcap100 supported gains and were trading up 0.5 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.

Among sectoral indices, the Nifty Private Bank saw most gains, trading over 1 percent higher followed by Nifty Financial Services, Nifty Metal and Nifty Pharma. Selling was witnessed in Nifty FMCG, Nifty Realty and Nifty IT.

Hindalco Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank, UPL, Tata Motors and ICICI Bank led gains among Nifty50 constituents while Mahindra & Mahindra, Titan Company, Bajaj Finserv, Asian Paints and UltraTech Cement were the top index losers.

Shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank gained over 3 percent after the lender launched qualified institutional placement offering 6.5 crore equity to raise up to Rs 7,500 crore at a floor price of Rs 1,147.75 per share.

Titan Company slipped over 2 percent after it said that its operating cash flow was negative due to virtually zero sales during the first 6 weeks of lockdown, increase in mark-to-market cash outflow on gold hedge due to rising gold prices and committed costs being incurred. The company said that the COVID-19 situation is expected to adversely affect profitability during the first half of this year.

Biopharmaceutical company Biocon announced that its subsidiary Biocon Biologics has received the Drugs Controller General of India's (DCGI) approval for CytoSorb, an extracorporeal blood purification (EBP) device.

Meanwhile in Asia, shares slipped on Wednesday as investor concerns about rising tensions between the United States and China tempered optimism about a re-opening of the world economy.

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