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After opening donw key benchmark indices continued to be rangebound in red zone weighed down by Capital Goods, auto and financial heavyweights.
ICICI Bank down 1.6%, Tata Motors down 2.4%, ITC down 1%, L&T down 1.7% and RIL down almost 1% are the top Sensex losers at this hour dragging the index down significantly.
At 1135 hrs, the BSE Sensex was down 88 points at 20,800 and the NSE Nifty was down 29 points at 6,192.
In the opening deals, markets started in the red with the benchmark indices lower by 0.5% each as risk aversion took center stage, in line with the negative global cues. This follows the 1% cut seen on the indices yesterday amid speculation that basket-selling by a few foreign institutional investors triggered the decline.
Broader markets are flat to negative with BSE smallcap flat while mid-cap index was down 0.3%.
Overnight, US stocks fell on their first day of trading in 2014 as investors booked profits in the wake of the S&P 500's best yearly advance since 1997, with many of last year's strongest performers down on the day.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.82%, at 16,441. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 0.89%, at 1,832. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.80%, at 4,143.
Asian share markets were under water after a sudden reversal in some very popular, and thus crowded, trades sparked a bout of global risk aversion.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed a sharp 1.3%, with markets from Shanghai to Sydney all in the red.
Shares in South Korea lost another 1.2%, though there the problem was one of a strong won and a weak yen undermining the competitiveness of the country's huge export companies.
Back home, except IT, Teck and Consumer Durables indices up 0.5% each, all the other sectoral indices were in the red.
Among the ones in the red, Auto index down 0.8% and Capital Goods down 0.7% were the top losers.
Bankex, Metal, Oil & Gas, FMCG and Health Care indices lost 0.1-0.2%.
Tata Motors, BHEL, Mahindra & Mahindra, L&T and Tata Power down 1-2% were the top losers among the Sensex-30 in opening deals.
SBI, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp , Hindalco, ITC and Sesa Sterlite down 0.6-0.9% were the other prominent losers.
Index heavyweight, Reliance Industries was down 0.5%.
Market breadth was marginally positive on the BSE. 599 stocks advanced while 515 stocks declined.
