Mumbai: Indian shares remained under pressure for the second straight session tracking weakness in global markets as the benchmark BSE Sensex Wednesday fell 19.17 points to 27,287.66, but stable earnings from some key blue-chips capped the losses.
A sharp correction in Chinese equities rekindled global risk aversion, with Shanghai Composite tumbling over 3 percent after rising strongly in recent weeks.
Brokers said further weakening of the rupee against the dollar also took its toll.
"Markets ended almost unchanged after trading volatile in a narrow range. Participants upheld cautious stance throughout the day mainly due to lack of any major cue from earning front and mixed indications from the global front," said Jayant Manglik President Retail Distribution at Religare Securities.
Resuming higher, the Sensex touched the session's high of 27,445.24 on the back of sustained capital inflows and encouraging Q2 earnings by Hero MotoCorp.
However, the index failed to hold onto gains towards the middle of the session and slumped to a low of 27,190.55 before ending at 27,287.66, a fall of 19.17 points or 0.07 percent.
The gauge had lost 58.09 points in the previous session.
The 50-share NSE Nifty remained lacklustre too, which dropped 9.95 points or 0.12 percent to close the day at 8,251.70. Intra-day, it shuttled between 8,294.40 and 8,217.15.
Hero MotoCorp rallied 0.54 percent on BSE after it posted 1.13 percent rise in standalone net profit at Rs 772.06 crore for the second quarter ended September.
However, shares of HDFC Bank fell 0.03 percent despite posting a 20.5 percent jump in net profit at Rs 2,869.5 crore for the September quarter.
From the Sensex kitty, Dr Reddy's was the worst-hit, down 3.30 percent, followed by SBI (1.87 percent).
Others which lost are BHEL, GAIL, L&T, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Lupin, Tata Motors and RIL.
Globally, Japanese stocks edged higher by 1.91 percent as data showing lower-than-expected growth in its merchandise exports in September added to expectations that the government will announce fiscal stimulus.
Singapore and South Korea also moved up by 0.18 percent to 0.22 percent, while Taiwan was quoted lower by 0.51 percent.
European markets were trading higher in afternoon deals
as key indices in France, Germany and the UK moved up by 0.31 percent to 0.47 percent.
Domestic stock markets will remain close tomorrow on account of Dussehra.
Pramit Brahmbhatt Veracity Group CEO said: "Price sensitive shares traded low as lower-than-expected earnings from some large caps in last week, dented the sentiments of the market and forced it to trade low. Though as the day progressed it managed to recover but eventually closed on a weak note just below the yesterday's close."
Out of the 30-share Sensex, 17 scrips ended higher.
Major losers were Dr Reddy's (3.30 percent), SBI (1.87 percent), BHEL (1.77 percent), GAIL (1.50 percent), L&T (1.44 percent), Sun Pharma (1.43 percent), ICICI Bank (1.36 percent) and Maruti (0.83 percent).
However, Vedanta rose by 3.75 percent, Bajaj Auto 3.28 percent, Bharti Airtel 2.70 percent, Tata Steel 1.66 percent, NTpercent 1.64 percent, Hindalco 1.30 percent, Infosys 1.09 percent, Wipro 1.04 percent and M&M 0.80 percent.
Among BSE sectoral indices, realty fell 1.79 percent followed by capital goods 1.04 percent, healthcare 0.78 percent and bankex 0.77 percent while metal rose 1.17 percent, teck gained 0.57 percent and IT jumped 0.43 percent.
The market breadth turned negative as 1,377 stocks ended in red, 1,330 closed in green while 159 ruled steady. The total turnover dropped to Rs 2,913.39 crore from Rs 3,376.86 crore yesterday.
