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Markets continue to trade in the negative territory as weakness in Reliance Industries and metal names weighed on the indices in late morning trades. At 1140 hrs, the Sensex was down 43 points at 21,891 and the Nifty slipped 12 points to trade at 6,524.
In the broader markets, the smallcap index was up 0.2% and the midcap index was marginally up 0.1% as compared to the 0.1% decline seen on the BSE benchmark index.
IT index up 0.5% and Power index up 0.8% were the top sectoral gainers. Banking index edged higher by 0.3%.
Meanwhile, Metal index slipped nearly 3% and was the top sectoral loser following uncertainty about the true state of China's economy.
Auto, FMCG, Health Care, Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas indices were weak, down 0.2-0.4%.
The notable gainers among Sensex-30 were Tata Power up 4%, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, BHEL and Gail India up 0.7-1%.
Value buying emerged in the IT space with the IT majors Wipro, TCS and Infosys up 0.2-1%.
Metal names like Tata Steel, Hindalco, Sesa Sterlite down 3-4% were the prominent losers.
Auto names like Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto slipped 0.1-2.5%.
FMCG majors, ITC and HUL slipped marginally by 0.2% each.
The market breadth was negative on the BSE. 1243 stocks declined while 1102 stocks advanced.
Asian Markets
Asian markets were finding their feet on Tuesday after a rocky ride the previous session, though uncertainty about the true state of China's economy kept nerves frayed and commodity prices restrained.
Most regional shares edged ahead, with Japan's Nikkei adding 0.6% and the major European bourses were seen opening up around 0.2%. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan put on 0.3%, after shedding 1.3% on Monday.
Shanghai was flat so perilously close to its lowest since last July, while prices for industrial commodities stayed under water in the wake of February's shock fall in Chinese exports.
