The domestic benchmark indices continued to trade higher on Wednesday on fresh buying by investors amid better-than-expected earnings.

Speculators covering up their short positions ahead of the May derivatives contract expiry tomorrow added to the upward move.

The BSE 30-share barometer rebounded by 168.90 points to hit a high of 30,534.15 in intra-day deals.

The gauge had lost 205.72 points in the previous session after investors booked profits amid volatile global cues in the aftermath of a terror attack in the UK.

At about 12 pm, the Sensex was up 84.27 points or 0.28 per cent at 30,449.52. The NSE Nifty was at 9,405.30, up 19.15 points or 0.20 per cent.

On the Nifty 50, 27 stocks declined to 23 that advanced.

The top five Nifty gainers: Tata Motors DVR (+3.83%), Tata Motors (+3.6%), GAIL (+2.5%), IOC (+2.22%) and YES Bank (+2.16%).

Top five decliners on the Nifty: Hindalco (-2.5%), ACC (-2.2%), Infratel (-2%), Ambuja Cement (-1.6%) and Aurobindo Pharma (-1.6%).

PSU banks, metal and pharma stocks were under pressure with the Nifty sector indices declining by up to 1 per cent.

Traders said fresh spell of buying by retail investors and domestic institutions coupled with covering—up of outstanding short positions ahead of the May derivatives expiry helped recover the market.

Global markets

Chinese stocks fell and the Australian dollar skidded on Wednesday after Moody's downgraded its sovereign credit rating on China, adding to worries about the global impact of slowing growth and rising debt in Asia's economic powerhouse.

Shares elsewhere in Asia also slipped, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.3 percent, despite modest gains on Wall Street overnight.

Financial spreadbetter CMC Markets expected Britain's FTSE 100 to open slightly higher, Germany's DAX to start the day little changed, and France's CAC 40 to edge lower.

Japan's Nikkei stock index managed to end 0.7 per cent higher.