Markets trade higher on firm global cues

Benchmark share indices were trading over 1% higher in late noon trades after shares in China rebounded from their lowest level since 2009 while gains in Europe also aided investor sentiment.

At 2:15PM, the Sensex was up 237 points or 1.3% at 18,778 and the Nifty advanced 67 points or 1.2% at 5,658.

However, the broader markets underperformed the benchmark indices with both the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices down 0.2% each.

Shanghai shares slumped more than 6% at one point to their lowest since early 2009, briefly pulling Hong Kong into the red, with losses accelerating for mid-sized banks as mainland inter-bank rates started climbing again. However, the Shanghai Composite recovered after its central bank said that appropriate liquidity management to keep lending growth reasonable. The benchmark index finally ended down 0.2%. The Hang Seng gained 0.2%. ed

 The sharp fall in China impacted Japanese equities, where sentiment had been boosted by a recently-resumed trend in yen weakness. The Nikkei stock average erased early gains to end 0.7% lower.

The Oil and Gas index was the top gainer among the sectoral indices on the BSE up 3% followed by Realty, Capital Goods, Bankex and FMCG among others.

In the oil space, Reliance Ind was up 3.2% while ONGC was up 4.7% after its arm ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) have signed definitive agreements to acquire Videocon Industries' 10% stake in Mozambique gas field for $2.475 billion (Rs 14,900 crore).

Among other index heavyweights, ITC, L&T, Bharti Airtel, HDFC were up 1-4.4% each.

ICICI Bank was the top Sensex loser down 0.7% along with Tata Motors, Wipro and Infosys.

However, market breadth continues to remain weak with 1,161 losers and 940 gainers on the BSE.