Risk appetite was also frail after the Reserve Bank of India made further rate cuts conditional on government moves to control fiscal deficit.
At 2:10PM, the Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share index Sensex rose 30 points and traded at 20,016.30 while the National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty gained10.10 points at 6,060.70.
In the results calendar, Balrampur Chini and Titan Industries are scheduled to release their third-quarter results today while Bharti Infratel, ICICI Bank, Godrej Consumer Products, Lupin, Punjab National Bank, Siemens, Shobha Developers, Tata Global Beverages, Trent on Jan 31
Asian shares ended on a positive note. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.7% to 23,822, Taiwan's Weighted index gained 0.4% to 7,832, Singapore's Straits Times inched up 0.64% to 3,284 while China's Shanghai Composite gained 1% to 2,382 and Japan's Nikkei surged 2.3% to 11,113.
US Federal Reserve ends a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday with investors focusing on the statement for any clues regarding a pull back from its aggressive easing stimulus.
Meanwhile, European markets traded flat. France's CAC gained 0.08% to 3,788, Germany's DAX was up 0.05% to 7,852 while UK's FTSE was down 0.15% to 6,329.
Back home, oil & gas, consumer durables, metal, banks rose while barring capital goods, auto, power and FMCG sectors, declined on BSE.
Among key Sensex stocks, Cipla rose 2.4%, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank gained 0.4% and 1% respectively, Hindalco and Sterlite Industries gaine 1% and 1.7% and Tata Steel notched up 2%, Reliance Industries gained 2% on BSE.
Among losers, GAIL fell 3%, ITC fell 1%, Larsen & Toubro and BHEL dropped 1% and 0.4%, Infosys fell 0.2% on BSE.
The broader markets are flat with mid-caps tad up by 0.03% while small-caps dropped 0.2% on BSE.
The market breadth was weak. Out of 2,829 stocks traded, 1,500 stocks declined compared to 1,190 advances on BSE.
