Equity benchmark indices drifted lower during early hours on Wednesday amid weak global cues with pharma stocks losing the most.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 181 points or 0.47 per cent at 38,226 while the Nifty 50 lost by 54 points or 0.48 per cent at 11,269.
Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty pharma slipping by 1.8 per cent, private bank by 0.7 per cent and IT by 0.6 per cent. But Nifty PSU bank gained by 3.5 per cent.
Among stocks, Cipla fell by 1.9 per cent to Rs 762.65 per share while Sun Pharma was down by 2 per cent and Dr Reddy's by 1.3 per cent.
The others which lost were Hindalco, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Wipro and GAIL.
However, State Bank of India gained by 3.8 per cent to Rs 202.45 per share. Ad Ports and auto majors like Eicher Motors, Hero MotoCorp and Mahindra & Mahindra traded with a positive bias.
Meanwhile, Asian stocks dipped on growing uncertainty over whether the US lawmakers will agree on an additional round of fiscal stimulus to support the economy still struggling with the novel coronavirus.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.76 per cent while Japan's Nikkei gained by 0.2 per cent.
( With inputs from ANI )