With the mood turning watchful, many frontline stocks have drifted lower after making a bright start.

At 11:40 a.m., the Sensex was up by 42 points at 8821, while the Nifty gained 11.35 points at 2717.50.

Realty, pharmaceutical, consumer durables and metal stocks lost their earlier gains and turned weak. Various from PSU, FMCG, auto and power stocks too have declined on account of selling pressure.

At the same time, oil, capital goods and IT stocks remained quite subdued, whereas selected bank stocks traded on a strong note.

Several stocks from midcap and smallcap indices posted negative results. Mirroring the sell-off, the Midcap and Smallcap indices lost 0.98% and 0.75% respectively.

The stocks, which lost over 5%, were Hindalco and Ranbaxy Laboratories. On the other hand, DLF was down by around 3% at Rs 175.40. Mahindra & Mahindra declined 2.65% at Rs 288.

Tata Motors was down with a loss of 1.4% at Rs 138.

HDFC, Wipro, Maruti Suzuki and NTPC lost between 0.3% - 0.6%. Tata Steel, Tata Power and Reliance Industries also recoded small losses.

United Spirits (down 23.7%) and Zee Entertainment (down 11.6%) declined after declaring weak quarterly numbers. IVRCL Infrastructure lost more than 9% at Rs 97.90, whereas Sun TV Network fell 7% at Rs 150.45.

The other major losers were Sintex Industries, Titan Industries, MMTC, United Breweries, Nagarjuna Construction Company, Lanco Infratech, Aban Offshore, Jubilant Organosys, Tata Communications, Bajaj Financial Services, Indian Hotels, Bombay Dyeing and Voltas.