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Markets continue to languish in the early noon trades over political worries raising doubts about the fate of government's reforms. The 1300 hrs, the Sensex was down 38 points at 18,970 and the Nifty gave off 22 points at 5,723.
The broader markets were underperforming the benchmark indices. The BSE mid-cap index slumped 1.66% at 6,177 and the small-cap index slipped 1.55% at 5,948.
Share markets across most of Asia and the euro struggled after a bailout plan for Cyprus fell into disarray, but losses were limited as investors clung to hopes that a last minute deal will be hammered out.
The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.2%, having earlier carved out a fresh 2013 trough. Among the biggest losers, South Korea's Kospi fell 1% and Taiwan's lost 0.5%.
Bucking the region's weakness, Hong Kong stocks bounced off a three-month low thanks to a rally in Chinese shares. Japanese financial markets were shut for a holiday.
Back home, among the sectoral indices, Realty index cracked over 3% followed by Capital Goods, Power, PSU, Bankex and Oil & Gas indices which dropped 1-2%. The only indices in the green were Health Care and Auto indices up 0.3-0.6%.
In the realty space, HDIL, Unitech, Purvankara Projects, Peninsula Land, IVRCL, Jaiprakash Associates and DB Realty were trading lower in the range of 5-20%.
HDIL has tanked almost 20% to Rs 48.70, also its record low on NSE after local credit agency Credit Analysis and Research Ltd (CARE) downgraded the real estate developer's debt, citing "delays in servicing" obligations.
Meanwhile, the top gainer among the Sensex-30 were Hindustan Unilever up 2.5% after UBS upgraded teh company to "buy" from "neutral" and raised its target price to 540 rupees from 500 rupees, citing expectations for a "strong" business outlook and the prospect of rising volumes for its products.
The other gainers included Cipla, Tata Motors, TCS, Hero MotoCorp, ITC,Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel and Dr Reddys Lab which gained 0.2-2%.
Among the ones in the red were SBI, L&T, NTPC, ONGC, BHEL, Maruti Suzuki, Hindalco, Mahindra & Mahindra and ICICI Bank down 1-2%.
Among other stocks, Manappuram Finance continued to slide, dropping 10.8%, after the company said on Tuesday it expects an "under recovery" of revenue on certain gold loan portfolios due to a correction in gold price.
The market breadth was very negative on the BSE. 2010 stocks declined while 641 stocks advanced.
