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Markets continue to trade in the negative territory amid volatility weighed down by software and financial shares.
At 1420 hrs, the Sensex was down 42 points at 20,119 and the Nifty slipped 19 points at 6,092.
On the global front, Japan's Nikkei share average inched up in choppy trade on Wednesday, with investors still wary after last week's tumultuous trade raised concerns about the outlook as the market retreats from 5-1/2-year highs.
The Nikkei finished up 0.1% at 14,326.46, after trading as high as 14,512.28 and as low as 14,243.49. The index saw its first two-straight days of gains since last Thursday's 7.3% slide, its biggest one-day %age drop since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Analysts said the volatility may persist for a few weeks.
Back home, the rupee weakened to its lowest in 10 months on Wednesday tracking broad dollar gains versus global and Asian currencies. The first time the rupee had breached the 56 mark this month was on May 23 when it had touched 56.01 against the greenback.
Among the sectoral indices, Health Care, FMCG, Auto and Consumer Durables indices were in the green, gaining 0.1-2%.
In the broader markets, the midcap index was down 0.4% in line with the benchmark index and the smallcap index lost 0.3% in the noon trades.
Meanwhile, Realty index slipped over 3% followed by Metal, Bankex, IT, Power, Capital Goods, PSU and Oil & Gas indices losing 0.3-1.4%.
The gainers among the Sensex-30 were Sun Pharma up over 7% after reporting a better-than-expected 23% year-on-year (yoy) growth in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1,012 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 on back of higher operational income.
Tata Motors gained over 2% ahead of the Q4 results where are revenue is likely to be up by 4%.
Hero MotoCorp, Coal India, Dr Reddys Lab, Hindustan Unilever, Cipla, ONGC and ITC, up 0.3-1.5% were the only other gainers on the BSE Sensex.
Among the major losers were metal names like Jindal Steel, Tata Steel and Sterlite down 2-2.5%.
From the financial space, HDFC, ICICI Bank and SBI have declined between 1-2%.
IT majors like TCS and Infosys are down over 1%.
Among other shares, Wockhdart is locked in lower circuit of 10% at Rs 1,122 on concerns of flat growth in the current financial year 2013-14 (FY14).
The market breadth in BSE remains weak with 1,335 shares declining and 913 shares advancing.
