Mumbai:  Equity benchmark indices were flat during early hours on Tuesday, mirroring Asian markets due to weak volumes ahead of the Christmas holiday break. At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was 0.45 points lower to 41,642 while the Nifty 50 crawled down by 0.35 points at 12,263.

Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green except for Nifty IT, realty and financial service. Nifty media gained by nearly 1 per cent. Among stocks, Zee Entertainment was the top gainer by 2.31 per cent to trade at Rs 301.60 per share. The others in positive zone included IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank, Hero MotoCorp and Mahindra & Mahindra.

However, IT stocks fell with HCL Technologies down by 1.4 per cent, Tech Mahindra by 0.5 per cent and Wipro by 0.4 per cent. HDFC Bank and Dr Reddy's too traded in the negative terrain. Meanwhile, Asian shares swing in and out of losses as the holiday lull offset optimism that a US-China trade deal will boost exports and corporate earnings.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was down by 0.01 per cent. Blue-chip shares in China rose by 0.29 per cent after Premier Li Keqiang said a day earlier that the government is considering more measures to lower corporate financing costs. Japan's Nikkei stock index edged 0.02 per cent lower.