Indian share markets lacked the enthusiasm of Dow Jones Industrial Average which touched historic highs driven by improved US service-industry data. Led by metals and auto, headline indices opened with a gap up, but appeared exhausted after the tremendous rally on Tuesday.

At 09.21 AM, the Sensex was up 81.83 points at 19225.00, and the Nifty rose 20.45 points at 5804.70.   Metals continue to rule for the second consecutive day. Sterlite, Hindalco and Coal India were up over 1 percent. In the auto space, Tata Motors was the only noticiable performer, rising over 1 percent in continuation of its previous day’s journey. Bajaj Auto had moved up by 0.5 percent. The rest, namely, Mahindra and Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp were trading in the red.

ICICI Bank slowed down in the morning trade after closing with a 3 percent gain on growing hopes that the Reserve Bank of India will cut interest rates in its policy meet later this month. ICICI as well as HDFC Bank were up 0.6 percent, followed by State Bank of India, Axis Bank and HDFC. Sentiment also improved after it was indicated that  major central banks across the globe would decide to keep monetary policy loose at meetings this week.

DLF was once again the fabourite realty stock, gaining over 1 percent in the morning trade. Godrej Properties and Pantaloon consolidated its positions after Tuesday’s rally with 1 percent and 1.7 percent gains respectively. JP Associates, Larsen and IDFC were other index gainers. The battered midcap space was better than its largecap peers. PC Jeweller shot up 4.7 percent after yesterday’s rally.

Asian shares extended gains on Wednesday as investors grew more risk-friendly following Wall Street’s record close, signs of continuing U.S. economic recovery, and globally accommodative monetary conditions.

The euro struggled to gain ground on Wednesday with investors sidelined ahead of the European Central Bank policy meeting, but commodity currencies made the most of improved risk appetite that saw the Dow Jones hit a record-closing high.

Brent crude broke a five-day losing streak on Tuesday, rising by more than 1 percent toward $112 a barrel on optimism over Chinese oil demand, record-high U.S. equities and North Sea supply disruptions.

U.S. Treasury debt prices eased on Tuesday as Wall Street stock indexes pushed to record highs, with investors turning away from safe-haven assets as higher government spending in China and solid U.S. data stoked an appetite for riskier
holdings.