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Risk appetite was bullish after US service-industry growth gained momentum while China maintained its economic-growth target at 7.5 percent for 2013 taking Dow Jones Industrial Average index to record-high on Tuesday.
Meanwhile speculation that the US Federal Reserve will continue its accomodative monetary policy stance in the wake of sluggish growth in the US fuelled buying into the riskier assets.
At 10:15AM, the Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex gained 70 points at 19,205.42 while the National Stock Exchange's Nifty added 17 points at 5,801.40.
Asian markets traded higher with China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.68% to 2,342 , Singapore's Straits Times added 0.8% to 3,271 , Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.8% to 22,740 while Japan's Nikkei gained 1% to 11,838.
Back home, among sectors, real-estate, metals, capital goods, autos, bankex led gains while healthcare and FMCG declined on BSE.
Among the individual stocks, gainers included Larsen & Toubro rising over 2%, Wipro and Infosys were up 2% and 1% respectively, Tata Motors gained 1.4%, Reliance Industries added 0 .5% on BSE.
The laggards were HUL and ITC declining 1.5% and 1% respectively, Cipla and Dr Reddy’s shed nearly 1%, Mahindra & Mahindra along with Maruti Suzuki dropped over 1% on BSE.
Among other notable movers, AstraZeneca Pharma India has dipped almost 10% to Rs 751, also its 52-week low on BSE after the multinational pharmaceutical company said that its promoter AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals AB Sweden has decided to reduce its shareholding in the company to meet minimum public shareholding norm.
Uttam Galva Steels is locked in upper circuit of 5% at Rs 72.55 with no sellers on the counter after the company said it planning to raise about Rs 175 crore through placement of shares to fund expansion and augment long term-resources.
The broader markets gained with mid-caps and small- caps rising 0.7-0.8% on BSE.
The market breadth was firm. Out of 1,831 stocks traded , 1,201 stocks advanced compared to 543 declined on BSE.
