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Benchmark indices have extended the losses weighed down by Auto and Oil & Gas shares.
By 1305, Sensex plunged by 78 points at 18,963, and the Nifty was down 25 points at 5,724 levels.
On the global front, Asian shares fell on Wednesday as investors waited for news on the US economy, while Japanese stocks rose and the dollar recovered against the yen on expectations of forceful monetary easing emerging from this week's Bank of Japan policy meeting.
European markets were likely to track Asian peers lower, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100, Paris's CAC-40 and Frankfurt's DAX to open down as much as 0.6%. Benchmark indices in Spain and Italy were seen retreating 0.8% and 0.7% respectively when they start trading.
Back home, BSE Auto, Oil & Gas and TECK indices have declined by 1% each followed by counters like Consumer Durabvle, Metal, Capital Goods, FMCG, PSU, IT, Realty and Banks, all falling marginally. However, BSE Power and Healthcare indices have surged between 1-2%.
The main losers on the Sensex at this hour include Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, GAIL, M&M, Coal India, HDFC, HUL, Hero Moto, all sinking between 1-3%.
On the gaining side, Tata Power, Sun Pharma, NTPC, BHEL and Maruti Suzuki have gained between 1-3%.
Among others shares, Aurobindo Pharma is trading higher by 3% to Rs 161 after the company said it has received tentative approval from the US Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) to manufacture and market its anti-AIDS combination drug Efavirenz/ Emtricitabine and Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate Tablets.
Welspun Corp has soared 15% to Rs 64.20 on back of heavy volumes after Nippon Investment and Finance Company, a Japanese private equity (PE) player, acquired close to 1% stake in the company through open market transaction.
Meanwhile, BSE Midcap index has gained by 25% whereas BSE Smallcap index is up 0.8%.
The market breadth in BSE remains healthy with 1,473 shares advancing and 1,038 shares declining.
