Volatility ruled as key benchmark indices struggled to recover from the day's low in morning trade.
The Sensex failed to maintain initial gains and was trading lower by 8 points in late morning trade as it came marginally under pressure due to selling at FMCG, healthcare, auto and consumer durable counters.
However, renewed buying was seen in realty, capital goods, IT, banking, technology and power stocks.
The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained strong.
The 30-share index Sensex resumed higher at 26,940.64 and hovered in a range of 26,948.84 and 26,742.15 before quoting at 26,829.42 at 1100 hours, a marginal fall of 7.77 points, or 0.03 per cent, from its last close.
The NSE 50-share Nifty also quoted lower by 2.35 points, or 0.30 per cent, to 8,137.45 at 1100 hours.
The major losers are ICICI Bank (1.91 per cent), Tata Motors (1.79 per cent), Hero MotoCorp (1.25 per cent) and Sun Pharma (1.18 per cent).
However, Infosys gained 1.19 per cent, followed by Wipro (1.15 per cent), SBI (0.91 per cent) and Axis Bank (0.86 per cent).
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors net sold shares worth Rs 727.61 cr yesterday, according to provisional data. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 412.66 cr yesterday.
Overseas, Asian stocks were trading mostly lower. Key indices in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indonesia were down by 0.10 per cent to 1.78 per cent. Indices in Japan, Singapore and South Korea moved up by up to 0.24 per cent.
In the New York market, US stocks yesterday ended with modest gains as the main indexes remained stuck in tight trading ranges ahead of the jobs report due on Friday.
