Key benchmarks firmed up once again in mid-morning trade. At 11:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 215.26 points or 0.59% at 36,832.07. The Nifty 50 index was up 70.85 points or 0.65% at 11,005.20. The Nifty was flirting with the psychologically important 11,000 mark after crossing that level in early trade.

Indices opened higher and hit fresh intraday high in early trade. Benchmarks pared gains in morning trade. Barometers firmed up once again in mid-morning trade.

Broader market witnessed selling. Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.31%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.45%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 727 shares rose and 1385 shares fell. A total of 116 shares were unchanged.

Telecom shares fell across the board. Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 4.46%), Vodafone Idea (down 3.14%) and MTNL (down 2.51%), edged lower.

Bharti Airtel was down 1.32%. Moody's Investors Service downgraded the senior unsecured rating for Bharti Airtel to Ba1, or junk, from Baa3 as well as the backed senior unsecured notes issued by Bharti's wholly owned subsidiary, Bharti Airtel Int'l (Netherlands) B.V. Moody's has assigned a Ba1 corporate family rating (CFR) to Bharti and withdrawn the company's Baa3 issuer rating. The investors' service company in a statement on Tuesday said that its ratings outlook is negative.

Reliance Communications (RCom) was down 5.15%. RCom announced after market hours on Friday, 1 February 2019, that its board reviewed the progress of the company's debt resolution plans since the invocation of SDR on 2nd June 2017. The board noted that, despite the passage of over 18 months, lenders have received zero proceeds from the proposed asset monetization plans, and the overall debt resolution process is yet to make any headway. Accordingly, the board decided that the company will seek fast track resolution through the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai. The board believes this course of action will be in the best interests of all stakeholders, ensuring comprehensive debt resolution in a final, transparent and time bound manner within the prescribed 270 days. RCom and only two of its subsidiaries, Reliance Telecom and Reliance Infratel, will take appropriate steps shortly to implement the Board decision. There will be no impact on the business and operations of other subsidiaries of the company, including inter alia GCX, Reliance IDC, etc.

Pharmaceutical shares were mixed. Wockhardt (down 2.5%), Strides Shasun (down 2.16%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (down 1.84%), Piramal Enterprises (down 1.84%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (down 1.27%), Lupin (down 0.44%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 0.31%), Alkem Laboratories (down 0.15%) and Cadila Healthcare (down 0.11%), edged lower. Cipla (up 0.01%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 0.28%), Divi's Laboratories (up 0.47%), Aurobindo Pharma (up 0.93%) and IPCA Laboratories (up 4.49%), edged higher.

Overseas, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 was trading higher. China and several other markets in the region are closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.

US stocks closed higher Tuesday, as investors continued to sort through corporate earnings while awaiting President Donald Trump's State of the Union address in the evening.

President Donald Trump called for unity in his opening remarks at his second State of the Union address, and promised to lay out the agenda of the American people. Trump added that he wants a US immigration system that is safe, lawful, modern and secure as he seeks funding for a border wall rejected by Democrats.