At 11:56 am, the Sensex traded 39.66 points - or 0.10 per cent - lower at 39,643.63 while the Nifty was down 9.55 points - or 0.08 per cent - at 11,915.20.

Top laggards on the 50-scrip benchmark index at the time were Yes Bank, Zee Entertainment, JSW Steel, Hindalco and Coal India, trading between 1.30 per cent and 4.09 per cent lower.

On the flipside, the top Nifty gainers were Bharti Infratel, HDFC, Hero MotoCorp, Grasim and Larsen & Toubro, struggling with losses of between 1.69 per cent and 3.49 per cent.

HDFC, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the top drags on Sensex.

However, market breadth favoured gains, with 974 stocks trading higher on the National Stock Exchange, and 706 struggling with losses. On the BSE, 1,297 stocks advanced while 981 declined.

The rupee declined by 22 paise to 69.73 against the dollar in early trade. However, easing crude prices and foreign fund inflows limited the downside.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) infused Rs 1,215.36 crore into the capital markets on a net basis on Monday, provisional data from the NSE showed. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs), however, were net sellers to the tune of Rs 327.86 crore.

Equities in other Asian markets rose on Tuesday. Share markets in Tokyo rose 0.4 per cent, Hong Kong markets were up 0.3 per cent, and Shanghai gained 0.6 per cent. Seoul share markets inched up 0.1 per cent but Singapore lost 0.4 per cent.

The government is due to release the GDP or gross domestic product data for the quarter ended March 31 on Friday. Also, the futures and options contracts for the current month will expire a day before.