The Nifty 50 index was down 0.18% at 16,954.50 as of 10:36 a.m. IST. The S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.11% to 57,589.50. Both the benchmarks had gained nearly 0.5% during the session.
All the 13 major sectoral indexes declined, with the oil and gas stocks losing nearly 1%.
Though the waning of financial troubles in key U.S. and European banking entities is providing some confidence to investors, "the overall undertone still remains that of cautious to negative," Prashanth Tapse of Mehta Equities said. Investors also await macroeconomic data, both domestic and in the U.S.
GDP and jobs data from the world's largest economy is due on March 30, which could provide insight into the impact of U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy action on inflation and growth.
"Sentiment will likely be negative in the short term
ahead of key data," said Harsha Upadhyaya, president and chief
investment officer - equity at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management
Company.
"Till corporate earnings improve, expect markets to be rangebound."
First Citizens BancShares agreed to take on deposits and loans from failed Silicon Valley Bank on Monday, bringing some respite to global markets.
Among individuals stocks in India, shares of Paytm rose nearly 3% to a one-month high. The company's Paytm Wallet is now universally acceptable on all UPI QRs and online merchants. PNC Infratech's shares advanced over 7% after it was declared lowest bidder for highway project worth 8.19 billion rupees. Dilip Buildcon jumped over 8% after emerging as lowest bidder for order worth 7.80 bln rupees. On the flip side, Kalyan Jewellers
lost over 8% after a media report said that Warburg Pincus-owned Highdell Investment plans to sell a 2.5% stake in company through a block deal.
($1 = 82.1870 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
