The Indian equity benchmarks trimmed losses in noon deals led by buying interest in heavyweights like HDFC Bank, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Industries. The Sensex recovered over 400 points from the day's lowest level and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 18,251 after hitting low of 18,120.
As of 2:00 pm, the Sensex was down 69 points at 61,166 and Nifty 50 index fell 12 points to 18,246.
Eleven of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty FMCG index's 0.5 per cent decline. Nifty Pharma, Healthcare, Financial Services, Bank and Auto indices were also trading with a negative bias.
On the other hand, IT, metal, real estate and consumer durable shares were witnessing buying interest.
Small-cap shares were outperforming their larger and mid-cap shares as the gauge of smallcap shares on the NSE rose nearly 1 per cent.
Among the individual shares, Paytm bounced from its all-time low hit in the previous session. The stock jumped 8 per cent to Rs 1,112 after it shut its Canadian application.
Asian Paints was top Nifty loser, the stock fell nearly 3 per cent to Rs 3,356. Axis Bank, UPL, Hindustan Unilever, HDFC, Nestle India, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Wipro, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp, Titan, Eicher Motors and JSW Steel also fell between 1-2.7 per cent.
On the flipside, Tata Consumer Products, Adani Ports, Indian Oil, Infosys, Larsen & Toubro, TCS, HDFC Bank and Shree Cement were among the gainers.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,028 shares were advancing while 1,350 were declining on the BSE.