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Markets have trimmed gains in late trades on profit taking in index heavyweight ITC and select bank shares.
At 2.28 PM, the 30-share Sensex is up 61 points at 27,080 and the 50-share Nifty has gained 20 points at 8,103.
Following the tandem, BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices have surged 0.8% and 0.6% respectively.
The market breadth is healthy on the BSE with 1,514 shares advancing and 1,400 shares declining.
Across the globe:
Japanese shares hit a seven-month high on Wednesday to end at 15,728.35 up by 0.3%, with financial shares leading the gains, in the hope a cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe giving fresh impetus to his "Abenomics" growth-promoting policies.
Activity in China's services sector rebounded in August after a drop in July, two surveys showed on Wednesday, offseting factory-sector weakness and letting the government stick with its "targeted" policy stance to keep growth on track. Shanghai gained 1% and Hang Seng surged over 2%.
Meanwhile, European stocks have surged and are trading firm in a narrow range ahead of ECB policy meeting with DAX and CAC up over 1% and FTSE is trading higher by 0.8%.
Rupee:
The rupee is trading at 60.3 versus Tuesday's close of 60.68/69 as most traders cited a Japanese bank's dollar-selling as the main reason for the Indian unit's gain. Other foreign banks also stepped in to sell the greenback following the Japanese bank.
After a series of encouraging economic indicators, the HSBC PMI data released today was a dampner. Indian services activity expanded at its weakest rate in three months in August as firms' order books filled up at a slower pace, a business survey showed on Wednesday.
The HSBC Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), compiled by Markit, fell to 50.6 in August from 52.2 in July. A number above 50 denotes growth while anything below implies contraction.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 672.81 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
Sectors & Stocks:
On the sectoral front, barring FMCG index, all other sectoral indices are trading in the positive territory. BSE IT index is leading the rally up 2.6% followed by Oil & Gas and Teck indices up 2% each. Capital Goods index is up 1%. However, Power and Realty indices are trading marginally in green.
The technology pack is witnessing an upsurge on the back of firm U.S. manufacturing activity data. The U.S. manufacturing activity hit a nearly 3-1/2-year high last month and construction spending rebounded strongly in the month of July. Wipro, TCS and Infosys have gained between 2.5-3%.
Bharti Airtel has climbed 3% in the noon trades after the company said its arm signed an agreement to acquire over 2.7 million subscribers of yuMobile.
Metal shares are trading in the positive territory shrugging off the weakness in the domestic HSBC PMI data released today. Tata Steel, Coal India and Sesa Sterlie have surged between 0.5-1%.
Index heavyweight Tata Motors has jumped 1.3% after receiving an order of approximately 2,700 Urban buses under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM)- II scheme. In addition, M&M and Maruti Suzuki are trading marginally in green.
L&T, Axis Bank, Tata Power and RIL have advanced between 0.5-2%.
On the flip side, GAIL and ONGC which surged during the morning trades have lost between 1-2% on profit booking.
Cigarette maker ITC has declined over 1%.
BHEL, Hero Motocorp and Bajaj Auto are some of the prominent names in red among others down 1%.
Among other shares, Shares of state-owned oil marketing companies gained after Brent crude prices were trading near 16-month lows as demand continues to remain weak on account of sluggish economic growth in China, the world's second largest economy and the euro zone. Hindustan Petroleum is up 2.4% at Rs 482, Bharat Petroleum rose 1.4% and Indian Oil Corp gained 2.3%
Shares of Carborundum Universal have zoomed nearly 10% to Rs 208 on the NSE in the noon trades after HDFC Mutual Fund bought 10 lakh shares or 0.53% stake in Carborundum Universal at Rs 188/share via bulk deal on the NSE on Sep 2, 2014.
