Markets trim gains; Nifty slips below 8,950

Bank shares and select index heavyweights trim early gains

Markets trimmed early gains after profit booking emerged at higher levels after the sharp surge in the previous session capped further upsides.

At 9:30am, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 19 points at 28,959 and the Nifty50 was up 13 points at 8,930.

On Tuesday, benchmark share indices surged with the Sensex ending at its highest closing level since April 13, 2015 after slower than expected growth in US jobs data during August dampened the prospects of an early rate hike by the US Federal Reserve.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 1,439 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

"Nifty is expected to open on positive note and likely to witness up move during the day. Technically, Nifty has shown a smart rally from the support level of 8540 levels towards 8820 with a strong closing indicates some positive sign. Going ahead Nifty is likely to continue its up move rally towards 9000/9020levels. For Intraday support lies 8840 and resistance at 8940/9000," Nirmal Bang Research said in a technical note.

ICICI Bank and SBI were the top gainers along with index heavyweight ITC.

"Going ahead, we continue to maintain our positive stance on Nifty Bank and we reiterate our advice that unless any reversal signs seen, traders should focus on stock specific moves and trade in direction of the broader uptrend. The intraday support for the index are placed around 20200 and 20089 and the resistances are seen around 20541 and 20907," Angel Broking said in a technical note.

Tata Motors extended gains and was up nearly 1% while ONGC, Maruti Suzuki and Tata Steel were among the other Sensex gainers.

Private banks such as HDFC Bank and Axis Bank eased in early trades while Asian Paints also witnessed profit taking after recent gains.


Global Markets

Asian stocks firmed up on Wednesday after a weak US August services sector data would compel the US Federal Reserve not to ease interest rates soon. However, the Nikkei eased after a stronger yen and the benchmark index was down 0.6%. Straits Times and Hang Seng came of their early highs and were trading flat with negative bias. China 's Shanghai Composite was up 0.4%.

Major US stock indices ended higher on Tuesday after sluggish services sector further aided sentiment that the US Federal Reserve may hold back from raising interest rates at its September meeting. The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 0.3% at 18,538, S&P 500 gained 0.3% to 2,186 and Nasdaq gained 0.5% at 5,276.