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Markets have declined in late morning trades as profit taking at higher levels weighed on the indices. In the first hour of trade, both the Sensex and the Nifty touched their all-time highs on the back on buying in financials and ITC.
However, the disappointing sevices PMI data dampened the investor sentiment. Growth in India's dominant service industry stalled last month as new orders came in at a weaker pace, adding to pressure on the government to drive through economic reforms, a business survey showed on Wednesday.
The HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), compiled by Markit, fell to 50 in October from September's 51.6, the lowest in six months and right on the break-even point between growth and contraction.
At 1215 hrs, the Sensex was up 61 points at 27,922 and the Nifty was up 15 points to trade at 8,339.
Broader markets too retreated from their intra-day highs but continued to outperform the BSE benchmark index. The small and midcap indices were up 0.5-0.7%.
Sectors & Stocks
Metal index down 2% along with Oil & Gas index down 0.3% were the only sectoral indices in red.
Meanwhile, banking index gained 1.2% along with Health Care and Realty indices up 0.7% each.
Metal scrips like Sesa Sterlite, Coal India, Hindalco and Tata Steel down 1-3% were the top losers among Sensex-30.
From the Oil and Gas space, RIL, ONGC and GAIL declined 0.06-0.6%.
Bharti Airtel, M&M, HDFC, Hero MotoCorp and Wipro down 1-1.4% were the other notable losers.
Among the ones in green were banks like SBI, AXIS, ICICI and HDFC Bank, all up 1-2.5%.
Auto majors Maruti, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto advanced 0.2-1%.
FMCG majors ITC and HUL were in green with gains of 0.8% each.
Index heavy weights L&T and TCS were flat with a positive bias.
The market breadth was positive owing to the gains in broader markets. 1,526 stocks advanced while 1,109 stocks declined on BSE
Global Markets
Asian shares wilted on Wednesday as oil prices extended losses after weak economic data from China, while the dollar took a breather after this week's rally.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down about 0.3%, while Japan's Nikkei stock average was flat.
