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Markets continue to trade within a narrow range in the opening hour of the trade with the Sensex trading within a 90 point range. At 1020 hrs, the BSE benchmark index was down 16 points at 21,321 and the Nifty lost 11 points at 6,327.
In the broader markets, the smllcap index strengthened to 0.3% while the midcao was down 0.2%.
The rupee was lower tracking Asian forex weakness, with the pair at 62.01/02 versus Wednesday's close of 61.8150/8250.Dealers predict 61.80-62.10 band for session with exporters coming in at this spot range.
In individual names, Mahindra & Mahindra Financials were down nearly 6% at Rs 240 after third quarter earnings were impacted on account of worsening asset quality and higher provisions impacted profitability.
Shares of Raymond surged over 3% to Rs 310 after it reported an over four-fold jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 56.89 crore for the third quarter ended December 31 on the back of growth across all businesses and margin expansion in key business segment.
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(Updated at 1030 hrs)
Markets started in the negative with the Sensex down 62 points at 21,275 and the Nifty dipped 21 points to 6,318. Weakness in names like RIL, ITC, ONGC and ICICI Bank weighed on the indices in opening deals.
In the broader markets, the smallcap index opened up 0.2% while the midcap index was flat with a negative bias.
Asian markets fell on Thursday after a survey of Chinese manufacturers showed surprisingly soft results, while the Australian dollar weakened due to its role as a whipping boy when activity in the Asian giant disappoints.
The flash Markit/HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for China fell to 49.6 in January, from December's 50.5, suggesting a mild slowdown at the end of 2013 has continued into the new year.
Shanghai shares slipped 0.4%, though investors were still relieved that the country's central bank was flooding money markets with cash to ease a credit squeeze.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan also lost 0.9%, while Australia's main index dropped 0.5%.
Japan's Nikkei pared its early gains to be up 0.2% on the day. The news from Japan has been better, with a Reuters survey of business sentiment improving for a third straight month in January to reach a high last seen in 2010 as optimists far outnumbered pessimists.
Overnight, the S&P 500 closed flat on Wednesday as a mixed bag of corporate earnings failed to give investors the confidence to push equities higher with the index near record levels.
For the second day in a row, the Dow posted outsized losses following weak results from one of its components while the Nasdaq climbed, with BlackBerry one of its biggest boosts.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.25%, at 16,373. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 0.06%, at 1,845. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.41%, at 4,243.
Back home, on the sectoral front, Capital Goods index was up nearly 2% along with Health CAre and Power indices were up 0.2-0.3%, were the only indices in the positive territory.
Oil & Gas, Bankex, Realty, Auto, FMCG and IT indices were in the negative down 0.2-0.5% in the opening deals.
L&T up 3%, Sun Pharma and BHEL adding 1% each were the top gainers among Sensex-30. L&Tgained after the company's margins witnessed expansion during the third quarter ended December post the demerger of its hydro carbon business.
Cipla, HDFC, Infosys, Sesa Sterlite, Tata Power, Tata Motors and Bharti Airtel up 0.1-0.6% were the other gainers.
Among the ones in the red were Mahindra & Mahindra, ONGC, RIL and Wipro down 0.7-1%.
Bajaj Auto, Hindalco, ICICI Bank, NTPC, TCS, ITC SBI and HUL down 0.3-0.6% were the other notable scrips in red.
The market breadth was positive on the BSE. 616 stocks advanced while 444 stocks declined.
