The BSE Sensex, Nifty were down 0.35 per cent, tracking a selloff in global equities and a slump in the rupee.
The Indian rupee fell to a four-and-half month low against the dollar on Wednesday. The partially convertible currency fell to 61.41 per dollar, its lowest since March 14. It later recovered to trade at 61.23 against its previous close of 60.85/dollar.
The reverses in the rupee came on the back of a rising dollar, which hit its highest against a basket of currencies since last September. The US dollar gained tracking positive data in the US economy.
Worries over Russian troops amassing near the Ukraine border sent most Asian and European stock markets lower today.
Rohit Srivastav, fund manager at Sharekhan, said he expects Indian stock markets to struggle in the near term with selling pressure emerging at higher levels.
Rakesh Arora, MD & Head of Research at Macquarie Capital Securities (India), does not see a deeper correction of more than 5 per cent from current levels. The chances of markets going up are more than going lower as there are not many negative cues on the horizon, he added.
However, some buying was seen in midcap and smallcap shares with the BSE sub-indices rising 0.2 per cent to 0.4 per cent. Among largecap stocks, ICICI Bank fell 1.3 per cent, while HDFC Bank was 0.8 per cent.
Infosys was up 2.3 per cent after three former top officials of the company urged the IT major to buy back shares worth Rs 11,200 crore.
At 1:09 p.m., the Sensex was down 62 points at 25,845 while Nifty fell 21 points to 7,725. At its day's low, the Nifty fell to 7,694.25.
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