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Markets were trading near their day highs in late morning trade led by capital goods and oil shares.
At 11:39AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 107 points at 19,502 after touching an intra-day high of 19,496 and the 50-share Nifty was up 29 points at 5,872 after hitting an intra-day high of 5,870.
Indian factory activity remained weak in June as output contracted for the second month running and order books shrank for the first time in over four years, a survey showed on Monday. The HSBC Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), compiled by Markit, edged up to 50.3 in June from 50.1 in May.
The latest PMI showed inflationary pressures, which eased in the previous few months, have started to pick up again with input and output costs both rising in June.
Asian markets were trading mixed on worries that the US Fed may start reducing its monetary stimulus measures sooner-than-expected on signs of economic recovery in the US and economic growth slowdown in China.
China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index was at 50.1 from May’s 50.8, the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said today in Beijing.
Shanghai Composite was down 0.4%, Straits Times slipped 0.3% while Nikkei rebounded from the day lows and was up 0.9%. Hong Kong's stock market is closed for today.
Realty index was the top gainer among the sectoral indices on the BSE up 2.3% followed by Capital Goods, Power, Healthcare, Metal, Oil and Gas indices.
Power equipment gained today on hopes that higher natural gas prices would lead to higher orders from gas-based power producers. L&T was up 2.6% at Rs 1,441 after the engineering giant said it has won new orders worth of Rs 3,057 crore across various business segments in June 2013. BHEL was up 2.4% at Rs 179.
In the oil and gas segment Reliance Ind and ONGC extended gains and were up over 1% each after the government last week doubled natural gas prices to $8.4 per million British thermal unit from $4.2 earlier.
Other Sensex gainers include, HDFC and Bharti Airtel.
Shares of software exporters witnessed profit taking after gains last week and the appreciation in the rupee against the US dollar. Infosys and TCS were down 1.4-1.7 pct each.
In the auto pack, Maruti Suzuki was down after June sales remained weak. The country's largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India today reported 12.6% decline in total sales in June this year at 84,455 units. Mah & Mah was down 0.2%.
Other Sensex losers include, ICICI Bank and ITC.
Among other shares, United Spirits has rallied nearly 5% to Rs 2,275 after the foreign fund house Morgan Stanley Asia purchased nearly 1% stake in the company for an estimated Rs 229 crore through open market transaction.
Apollo Tyres has rallied 8% to Rs 60.95 in morning trades after falling 39% in past twelve trading sessions on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). In a regulatory filing on Friday, the tyre maker said the promoter has hiked their stake in the company through creeping acquisition route. Classic Auto Tubes, one of the promoters of Apollo Tyres, bought 600,000 shares at an average price of Rs 56.73 per share from the open market on June 26.
The broader market outperformed the benchmark indices. BSE Mid-cap and Small-Cap indices were up 1.3-1.4% each.
Market breadth was strong with 1,221 gainers and 618 losers on the BSE.
