Stock market news: Benchmark indices NSE Nifty 50 and S&P BSE Sensex opened lower on Wednesday, dragged by media, PSU banks, metal and information technology stocks ahead of key US jobs data and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's congressional testimony.

The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 shed 0.033 per cent to 22,348.85 as of 9:45 am, while the BSE Sensex rose 0.043 per cent to 73,708.46.

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said, “A significant recent development is the liquidity in the banking system moving from deficit to surplus. This is positive for banks, particularly those that are facing constraints in raising deposits to match credit growth. The impact on the market would be the outperformance of Bank Nifty over Nifty.”

“Another trend that has started is the underperformance of the small-cap index. This trend also is likely to continue since small-cap valuations continue to be excessive. Nifty is likely to consolidate at around the present levels. Dips will be bought since institutional buying has been strong. Sentiments are a bit weak in the NBFC space due to the RBI’s restrictive actions against some NBFCs,” he added.