Opening Bell: Sensex up 170 points; Nifty above 11,800; Zee Entertainment top gainer

Indian equity benchmark indices opened higher on Wednesday for the second consecutive day led by the gains in PSU banks and IT stocks.

At 9:15 am, the 30-share BSE Sensex opened with 179 points or 0.45 percent at 40,010.84 while the Nifty50 index opened 57.20 points or 0.49 percent higher at 11,844.05.

Nifty PSU Bank was up 0.82 percent posing as the best-performing index during the opening bell.

Bharti Airtel, Indian Oil Corporation, YES Bank, Grasim, and Adani Ports remained the top gainers while Tata Motors, Eicher Motors, ICICI Bank, ONGC and M&M were the top laggards.

The share price of Bandhan Bank fell 4.8 percent intraday on Wednesday after the Reserve Bank of India slapped Rs 1 crore fine over non-compliance of promoter holding guidelines.

Meanwhile, Asian share markets slipped on Wednesday, as the prospect of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve was countered by worries a Sino-U.S. first-stage trade deal could be delayed.