Key indices continued to trade sideways in early afternoon trade. The Nifty found strong support at 11,450 level. At 12:22 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 87.89 points or 0.23% at 38,593.98. The Nifty 50 index was up 27.9 points or 0.24% at 11,456.20.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.05%, underperforming the Sensex. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.37%, outperforming the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 1155 shares rose and 989 shares fell. A total of 179 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, 28 stocks advanced while 22 stocks declined.

On the derivatives front, the NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, fell 1.76% to 16.5525.

On the options front, the Nifty option chain for 31 October 2019 expiry showed maximum call open interest (OI) of 24.17 lakh contracts at the 12,000 strike price. Maximum put OI of 29.91 lakh contracts was seen at 11,000 strike price. The option chain indicates that Nifty will stay between 11,000 and 12,000 in October expiry.

Shares of IRCTC were down 1.65% at Rs 701.3, sliding 3.62% in two trading sessions amid profit booking after a stellar debut on Monday, 14 October 2019. The stock was listed at Rs 644 on BSE, a premium of 101.25% to the IPO price of Rs 320.

Bharat Electronics (BEL) reported that President of India, acting through Ministry of Defense, Government of India sold 1.61 crore shares of the company through off market. The Government sold its shares to ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company under Further Fund Offer of Bharat 22 ETF launched by the AMC. Post disposal of shares, Government's stake in the company reduced from 55.93% to 55.27%.

Shares of BEL were trading 1.36% higher at Rs 111.95.

Karnataka Bank fell 1.77% to Rs 69.35 after the bank reported Q2 earnings after market hours yesterday, 15 October 2019. Karnataka Bank's net profit fell 5.3% to Rs 105.91 crore on a 17.2% increase in total income to Rs 1938.40 crore in Q2 September 2019 over Q2 September 2018.

Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at Rs 2594.27 crore as on 30 September 2019 as against Rs 2437.53 crore as on 30 June 2019 and Rs 2371.62 crore as on 30 September 2018. The ratio of gross NPAs to gross advances stood at 4.78% as on 30 September 2019 as against 4.55% as on 30 June 2019 and 4.66% as on 30 September 2018.