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After a brief dip in the negative territory, benchmark indices regained some of its lost ground in early noon deals as heavyweights like ICICI Bank, ONGC, Infosys and L&T edged higher. Earlier in the day, the Election Commission announced that the Lok Sabha polls would be conducted in 9 phases between 7 April and 12 May 2014.
At 1340 hrs, the Sensex was up 62 points at 21,271 and the Nifty was up 22 points at 6,320.
The broader markets were firm with the midcap index up 0.8% and the smallcap index was up 0.4%, both outperforming the Sensex which was up 0.3%.
However, the macro woes continue with activity in the largest segment of the economy - the services sector - contracted for the eighth straight month in February, showed the HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) index.
The downturn in the output eased marginally in February as the PMI for services stood at 48.4 points, up from 48.3 points in January. A reading below 50 points indicates contraction.
There was no respite for the Consumer Durables index which further slipped and was down over 2%. Auto index down 0.4% was the only other sectors index in red.
Meanwhile, Bankex and Capital Goods indices were up over 1% each along with Realty, IT and Teck indices up 0.4-0.7%.
ONGC up 2.3%, ICICI Bank and Maruti Suzuki up 1.8% were the top gainers among Sensex-30.
Coal India, SBI, Cipla, Tata Steel and L&T up 1-1.5% were the other notable gainers.
Meanwhile, Tata Power, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors declined 1-3%.
The market breadth was positive on the BSE. 1343 stocks advanced while 1149 stocks declined.
Global Markets
Asian stocks gained and the safe-haven yen remained on the defensive after a sharp tumble on Wednesday, following remarks from Russian President Vladimir Putin that allayed fears of an imminent military conflict in Ukraine.
Putin said Russia reserved the right to use all options to protect compatriots who were living in "terror" in Ukraine, but that force was not needed for now.
Earlier on Wednesday, Tokyo's Nikkei climbed 1.2%, buoyed after Putin's remarks helped the S&P 500 attain another record closing high on Tuesday. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5%.
