BENGALURU - Indian stocks clawed back early losses to jump more than 3% on Wednesday, as hopes of a phased lifting of an ongoing country-wide lockdown aided investor sentiment.

Earlier in the session, the NSE Nifty 50 index and the S&P BSE Sensex slipped more than 1.5% each. The Nifty was up 3.4% at 9,098.30, as of 0508 GMT, while the Sensex was up 3.2% at 31,119.25.

"Hopes of the lockdown lifting in a staggered way post April 14 is fuelling the markets," said Amit Kumar Gupta, portfolio manager, Adroit Financial Services.

By next week, the India government is expected to lift its 21-day lockdown that has rattled businesses and brought economic activity to a grinding halt. However, with the number of the coronavirus cases on the rise, it is unclear how the government plans to end the lockdown.

As of early Wednesday, India reported over 4,500 infections and nearly 150 deaths.

"It is a holiday-shortened week for trade in India, the pace of action is slightly quick, we are front-loading a lot of events that could happen next week," said Anand James, chief market strategist at Geojit Financial Services in Kochi.

Indian financial markets are closed on Friday and were shut on Monday for a local holiday. In the previous session, Indian shares recorded their biggest single-day gain in more than a decade.

Meanwhile, broader Asian markets inched lower as investors weighed the slowing rate of COVID-19 infections against rising deaths across the globe. 

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.5% and Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.7%.

In domestic trading, stocks across the board rallied. The Nifty bank index, the Nifty auto index and the Nifty pharma index NIPHARM all surged more than 4%.

Consumer heavyweight Hindustan Unilever rose nearly 5%, while shares of Godrej Consumer Products surged almost 8%.

(Reporting by Chandini Monnappa, additional reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips) ((Chandini.M@thomsonreuters.com; +918061822697;))