The Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share index Sensex fell 17.72 points and opened at 19,987.28 while the National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty fell 10 points to open at 6,045.65.
Risk appetite was also frail after the Reserve Bank of India in its third-quarter monetary policy review made further rate cuts conditional on government moves to control fiscal deficit.
In the results calendar, Bharti Infratel, ICICI Bank, Godrej Consumer Products, Lupin, Punjab National Bank, Siemens, Shobha Developers, Tata Global Beverages, Trent are scheduled to announce third-quarter results later today.
Asian shares paused amid concerns over US growth recovery after world's biggest economy experienced the first quarter of negative GDP growth (-0.1% quarter-on-quarter at an annualized rate) since the Great Recession.
Meanwhile, US Federal Reserve did not announce any policy change on Wednesday . It did change its assessment of the economy and acknowledged that “economic activity paused in recent months", but added that it was “in large part because of weather-related disruptions and other transitory factors".
Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.5% to 23,693, Taiwan's Weighted index declined 0.18% to 7,818, Singapore's Straits Times inched down 0.11% to 3,282 while China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.08% to 2,384 and Japan's Nikkei fell 0.61% to 11,046.
Back home, healthcare, consumer durables, technology rose while capital goods, oil & gas, power sectors, declined on BSE.
Among key Sensex stocks, Bajaj Auto gained 1%, Cipla rose 0.22%, HDFC and HDFC Bank was up 0.3% each,Sterlite Industries gained 0.13% on BSE.
Among losers, Tata Power dropped 0.7%, GAIL fell 0.5%, ICICI Bank shed 0.47% , Larsen & Toubro and BHEL dropped 0.5% and 0.4% on BSE.
The broader markets was flat with mid-caps falling 0.01% and small-caps inching up 0.1% on BSE.
The market breadth was positive. Out of 810 stocks traded, 466 stocks advanced compared to 309 declines on BSE.
