Sensex down just 50 points; Sun Pharma, Dr Reddys soar

After very shortlived early gains, Sensex slipped into the red down 44 points at 26376 points. Nifty was down 13 points to 7884.

The big gainers in the market were two pharma companies, Sun Pharma and Dr Reddys Lab. The other gainers were Wipro, HCL Tech and Lupin.

The losers were Punjab National Bank, IDFC, Hero Motocorp and ONGC.

While Sensex had gone up for six sessions in a row, HSBC had maintained its neutral ratings on the market. It said in a report, "We don't think the time is yet right for us to change our neutral weighting on Indian equities. Valuations still look high and mutual funds are still very overweight on the market. Also, there remains a risk of higher, not lower, interest rates. A positive is that some reforms have been put in place, but the impact on corporate earnings remains uncertain in terms of magnitude and timing."

Asian stocks were steady on Wednesday after strong United States housing data lifted Wall Street shares, helping nudge Treasury yields higher and keeping the dollar well bid against the euro and yen.

United States stocks ended higher for the second straight session on Tuesday, as robust housing data and strong earnings from Dow component Home Depot overshadowed lingering concerns about the conflict in Ukraine.