Uncertainty over government-formation in Karnataka, along with weak global cues, suppressed the key Indian equity indices on Wednesday afternoon.
No party achieved a clear majority in the election results announced on Tuesday, leading to uncertainty over the formation of the next government.
According to market analysts, heavy selling pressure was witnessed in oil and gas and banking stocks.
At 1.23 p.m., the wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was trading at 10,783.25 points — down 18.60 points or 0.17 per cent from the previous close of 10,801.85 points.
The barometer Sensex of the BSE, which opened at 35,452.35 points, was trading at 35,505.61 points (1.25 p.m.) — lower by 38.33 points or 0.11 per cent — from the previous day’s close at 35,543.94 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 35,534.57 points and a low of 35,241.63 points in the trade so far.
The BSE market breadth was bearish with 1,506 declines and 961 advances.
So far, the major gainers on the BSE were Hindustan Unilever, Wipro, Yes Bank, Tata Motors (DVR) and Tata Motors, while Hero MotoCorp, ICICI Bank, Adani Ports, Reliance Industries and Larsen and Toubro were the major losers.
On the NSE, the top gainers were Lupin, Wipro and Hindustan Unilever. The major losers were Cipla, UltraTech Cement and Hero MotoCorp.
