Markets turn negative; Infosys, ITC down 1%

Markets opened flat but slipped into negative territory weighed down by profit taking in IT majors and index heavyweight ITC.

At 9:35AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 52 points at 28,392 and the 50-share Nifty was down 13 points at 8,512.

HSBC India Services PMI for November 2014 is due on Wednesday. Adjusted for seasonal factors, the headline HSBC India Services PMI Business Activity Index fell to 50 in October, from 51.6 in September.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 107 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

Asian markets have gained on a rebound in crude oil prices. Japan's Nikkei share average rose to a more than seven-year high on Wednesday as the dollar hit a fresh seven-year high against the yen. Nikkei is trading with more than 1% of gains. Chinese shares are gaining in opening deals. Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng indices are gaining 1.7% and 0.5% each.

Led by gains in energy and auto shares, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at a record high with a 0.5% gain. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite gained 0.6% each.

BSE Auto index was the top sectoral gainer on the BSE up nearly 1% followed by Capital Goods and Consumer Durables indices among others. FMCG index was the top loser down 0.7% followed by IT and Bankex.

Tata Motors  was the top Sensex gainer up 1.2% on news that its prized acquisition Jaguar Land Rover has started to build a plant in Brazil. Other auto stocks that firmed up include Maruti Suzuki, M&M and Bajaj Auto.

Hero MotoCorp was up 0.7% after the company in a release late Tuesday said that it has appointed world golf champion Tiger Woods as its first global corporate partner.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries was trading with marginal gains on short covering after the recent correction.

Other Sensex gainers include, SBI, BHEL and NTPC.

IT majors extended losses with Infosys, TCS and Wipro down 0.1-0.9% each.

HDFC and HDFC Bank were down 0.3-0.8% each contributing the most to the Sensex losses.

Shares of companies engaged in insurance business are in limelight and trading higher by up to 8% on BSE on hopes of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the sector.  Max India (up 8% at Rs 402), Bajaj Finserv (up 5% at Rs 1,202), Reliance Capital (4% at Rs 541) and Aditya Birla Nuvo (up 1.5% at Rs 1,795) rallied 1-8% in early trade on BSE today.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up nearly 1% each.

Market breadth was positive with 1,139 advances and 400 declines on the BSE.