Mumbai: Indian equity benchmarks fell on Wednesday after opening nearly 1 per cent higher, erasing the morning's gains by midday, The Hindu BusinessLine reported in its live market coverage. At 11:35 am, the Sensex was down 6.84 points, or 0.01 per cent, at 73,846.06, while the Nifty 50 dropped 35.30 points, or 0.15 per cent, to 22,853.65.

The reversal followed a strong open driven by optimism over a possible India-US trade deal: ANI reported the Sensex up 570.89 points at 74,423.79 and the Nifty up 167.35 points at 23,055.70 in early trade. DataStreet likewise reported that the Sensex and Nifty opened with gains but later trimmed their early advances, with the Nifty hovering close to 23,000 as profit-booking and cautious sentiment set in.

IT stocks were the session's bright spot. The IT index jumped 1.96 per cent, BusinessLine reported, led by L&T Technology Services (LTTS), which surged 10.5 per cent after reporting September-quarter results: net profit up 66.8 per cent year-on-year to Rs 548.2 crore (yaani about Rs 5.48 billion) and revenue up 12.1 per cent to Rs 3,040 crore (yaani about Rs 30.4 billion), according to Finance Outlook India and TradingView/Moneycontrol reporting, which also noted large-deal wins of over $200 million and an interim dividend of Rs 20 per share.

Analysts cited foreign investor selling, elevated crude prices — Brent traded at $110.34 a barrel in ANI's morning report — and high US bond yields as headwinds. Geojit Investments' V K Vijayakumar said a 'sell on rally' trend was likely to continue in the near term, though improving earnings, fair large-cap valuations and strong domestic liquidity would support the market on declines, ANI reported.

Sources: The Hindu BusinessLine live market coverage; DataStreet; ANI via LatestLY; Finance Outlook India; TradingView/Moneycontrol.