Equity benchmark indices dropped by 0.7 per cent during early hours on Tuesday as traders booked profits amid weak signals from Asian markets.
Investor sentiment was also dampened by increasing COVID-19 deaths globally and restrictions overshadowed vaccine-related enthusiasm.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 349 points or 0.77 per cent at 45,904 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 95 points or 0.7 per cent at 13,463.
Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the negative terrain with Nifty PSU bank down by 2.2 per cent, FMCG by 1 per cent, metal by 0.8 per cent and private bank by 0.7 per cent.
Among stocks, Larsen & Toubro slipped by 1.9 per cent to Rs 1,225.60 per share. ONGC, Tata Motors, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Axis Bank and ITC too lost by 1.7 per cent.
The other prominent losers were IndianOil Corporation, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Coal India. However, those which gained were Eicher Motors, HCL Technologies, Wipro, Bajaj Auto, Cipla and Dr Reddy's.
Meanwhile, Asian stocks drifted lower as worries about increasing COVID-19 deaths and lockdowns overshadowed optimism about the roll-out of coronavirus vaccinations.
MSCI's index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan fell by 0.4 per cent and Chinese stocks were down by 0.2 per cent.
Markets in Japan and South Korea, both grappling with surging infection numbers and growing public frustration, slipped by 0.2 per cent and 0.3 per cent while Hong Kong gave up 0.5 per cent.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor