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Market traded in a narrow range even as weakness persisted in afternoon session trades. Key bechmarks failed to shed weakness dragged down by financials and autos.
Heavyweights such as ICICI bank, down 2%, ITC, L&T, HUL and HDFC were the key Sensex laggards while an uptick in Infosys, Sesa Sterlite, Bharti Airtel, Tata Power and Wipro capped losses.
At 1:05pm, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex index of top 30 stocks, was down 22 points or 0.14% at 20833 levels while the broader 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was down 5 points at 6,197 levels.
The broader markets edged higher with the midcap index up 0.2% and the small cap index added 0.6%, both outperforming the BSE benchmark index.
In the foreign exchange market, the partially convertible rupee was trading at 62.29 against the dollar.
Asian markets are lower today as Chinese and Hong Kong shares fall. The Shanghai Composite is off 1.54% while the Hang Seng is down 0.44%. The Nikkei 225 is not trading.
Back home, metal, consumer durables, power, TECk and IT stocks are up between 0.3-0.8% on the BSE sectoral indices. Capital goods is the top laggard down 1.2% followed by banks, FMCG, Autos and PSU indices.
The downturn in services activity eased slightly in November although a dearth of new orders prompted firms to rein in hiring plans, a business survey showed on Wednesday. The HSBC Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), compiled by Markit, nudged up to 47.2 last month from 47.1 in October.
The improvement, coupled with the positive findings of Monday's survey on Indian manufacturing, augurs well for India, which grew at a higher-than-expected 4.8% annual rate in the three months through September.
"Service sector activity remains subdued, but would at least appear to be stabilising," said Leif Eskesen, chief economist for India at survey sponsor HSBC.
While the services PMI reading was a little better than the previous month, it has now spent five straight months below the 50 mark that divides contraction from growth, prompting firms to freeze hiring plans.
Shares of power companies such as Adani Power, Tata Power and Reliance Power are trading higher by up to 8%, extending their past four days gain on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
The BSE Power index, the largest gainer among sectoral indices, was up 0.77% compared to 0.09% decline in S&P BSE Sensex at 1100 hours. The power index has rallied nearly 4% in past one week as against 2% rise in benchmark index.
Among the individual stocks, Adani Power has rallied 8% to Rs 38.95, followed by Tata Power up 3% at Rs 82.25 and Reliance Power 1.4% at Rs 74.
Eveready Industries India is trading higher by 5% to Rs 29.85 on back of heavy volumes on the bourses. The stock opened at Rs 28.30 and touched high of Rs 30.35, also its highest level since November 2011 on the BSE. A combined 410,479 shares have already changed hands on the counter till 1050 hours against an average sub 500,000 shares that were traded daily in past two weeks on the NSE and BSE.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive.
