 "Markets tad lower amid lacklustre trades")
At 2:30PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 38 points at 21,063 and the 50-share Nifty was down 8 points at 6,276.
The rupee has been range bound since early trades and was currently up at 61.88 post the governor's comments late Monday that the central bank had decided to keep rates on hold even before November inflation data. The rupee had closed at 61.95 on Monday.
In Asia , shares in Japan surged to end at a 6-year closing after breaching the 16,000 mark in intra-day trades after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe unveiled the largest ever budget today with increased spending of $922 billion. The Nikkei ended up 0.12% at 15,889. Among other key indices in the region, Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng and Straits Times were up 0.1-1% each.
Shares in Europe were trading higher on the back of encouraging economic data from the US. The CAC-40, DAX and FTSE-100 were up 0.3-0.9% each.
The BSE Metal index was the top loser among the sectoral indices while Capital Goods and Healthcare indices were among the gainers.
HDFC Bank and HDFC were down 0.8-1.3% each contributing the most to Sensex losses. Other Losers include, Sesa Sterlite, Sun Pharma and Wipro among others.
IT majors Infosys and TCS were marginally up on the back of improving business environment in the US.
Other Sensex gainers include, L&T, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Auto among others. According to market experts it is time to book profits in both L&T and BHEL as both the engineering majors have gained significantly over the past few weeks.
Among other shares, Century Textiles and Industries has rallied 12% to Rs 300, extending it’s nearly 6% gain in past two days, on back of heavy volumes on the bourses. The stock opened at Rs 268 on the NSE and has seen over two-fold jump in trading volumes.
In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.6% and the Small-cap index was up nearly 1%.
Market breadth was positive with 1,365 gainers and 1001 losers on the BSE.