Equity benchmark indices were subdued during early hours on Tuesday due to drag in banking stocks after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said gross non-performing assets of the lenders may increase from 7.5 per cent in September 2020 to 14.8 per cent under severe stress.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 117 points or 0.24 per cent at 49,152 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 11 points or 0.08 per cent to 14,474.
Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty private bank slipping by 0.5 per cent, pharma by 0.4 per cent and IT by 0.3 per cent. But Nifty metal rose by 1.5 per cent and auto by 1.2 per cent.
Among stocks, the prominent losers were Power Grid Corporation, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Nestle India, Hindustan Unilever, Titan and Sun Pharma.
However, GAIL rose by 4.4 per cent to Rs 141.60 per share after the government-owned company said it will consider a proposal to buy back shares.
Tata Motors climbed up by 6.9 per cent while Tata Steel gained by 2.3 per and JSW Steel by 1.7 per cent. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries was up by 1 per cent to Rs 1,916.45 per share.
Meanwhile, Asian stocks were mostly lower, tracking Wall Street declines as political turmoil in Washington and rising coronavirus cases worldwide weighed on sentiment.
Political uncertainty dominated trading as House Democrats introduced a resolution to impeach US President Donald Trump, accusing him of inciting insurrection following a violent attack on the Capitol last week.
Japan's Nikkei slipped by 0.48 per cent, South Korea's Kospi fell 0.91 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index futures lost 0.54 per cent.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.29 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 0.66 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.25 per cent.
( With inputs from ANI )
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