After a jerky session during morning, the 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) remained quiet a little before noon.

The Sensex, which belled the day at 17,911.13, was trading 8.23 points up at 17,917.69 as against its last closure at 17,909.46.

In contrast, the broad-based Nifty remained flat at 5,384.15, up 0.1% as against its last closure at 5,378.75.

The BSE midcap index surged 0.4% the BSE smallcap index grew by 0.77%.

IT, telecom and banking stocks remained in limelight, whilst oil and gas scrips witnessed selling action.

The overall breadth was optimistic as it saw 1,658 progressions as against 1,041 declinations. Other major Asian bourses remained down owing to selling pressure.

The Japanese Nikkei lost 2.89% at 9,405.94 on profit booking.

The South Korean Kospi closed 0.73% down at 1,738.45.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng remained flat, whereas the Chinese Shanghai Composite index stood at 2,411.68, down 0.52%.