Indian shares edged lower on Wednesday, posting their third consecutive loss, after blue-chips Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and Hindustan Unilever Ltd declined following disappointment over their quarterly earnings.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended down by 66.87 points or 0.25 per cent at 26,779.66 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was down 23.8 points or 0.29 per cent at 8,107.90.

IT index was down 1.32 per cent, followed by TECk 1.16 per cent, auto 0.72 per cent and power 0.7 per cent. On the other hand, consumer durables index gained the most by 1.41 per cent, followed by healthcare 0.36 per cent and oil & gas 0.07 per cent.

Although TCS, India's largest software services exporter, met market expectations on Tuesday with a 14.5 per cent rise in quarterly net profit, some analysts had hoped for better earnings and said the outlook for the sector could get tougher.

Meanwhile, Hindustan Unilever, India's largest consumer goods company, on Wednesday reported a 2.6 per cent fall in second-quarter profit, missing analysts' expectations.

TCS shares slumped 4.4 per cent, while Hindustan Unilever declined 1.9 per cent.

Bharat Forge fell 4.62 per cent after CLSA downgraded the stock to "sell" from "buy" citing slower growth across businesses.

Shipping stocks surged after a government source told Reuters that state-owned firms may have to give half their freight business to local shippers to help rescue an industry battered by the global commodities downturn.

Shipping Corp of India jumped 4.48 per cent, Mercator surged 6.33 per cent, Great Eastern Shipping rose 1.38 per cent, while Essar Shipping gained 3.76 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were Hindalco (+3.14%), Lupin (+1.91%), Tata Steel (+1.14%), HDFC (+1.08%) and Reliance (+1.06%), while the major losers were TCS (-4.39%), Tata Motors (-2.4%), HUL (-1.85%), Coal India (-1.72%) and ICICI Bank (-1.58%).

Investors' risk appetite was also affected due to elections in Bihar and weak global cues after subdued inflation data from China.

"Market will remain rangebound till earnings season and Bihar elections get over," said Deven Choksey, managing director at K R Choksey Securities.

A report by SMC Global said: "Asian stocks stumbled early today, as fresh data due out of China added to concerns over the state of the world's second-largest economy. US stocks dropped, snapping a seven-session winning streak for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.Consumer prices in China were up 1.6 per cent year-on-year in September. That was shy of forecasts for an increase of .8 per cent and down from 2.0 per cent in August. On a monthly basis, consumer prices added 0.1 per cent - down from 0.5 per cent in August. The bureau also said that producer prices fell 5.9 per cent on year - in line with expectations and unchanged from the previous month.''

Global markets

European stocks fell on Wednesday as new concerns about deflationary pressures in China impacted equity markets, while technology group ASML and builder Skanska slid after weak business updates.

Asian shares tottered on Wednesday, taking cues from Wall Street's losses and pressured by a continued selloff in oil as investors awaited consumer price data from China this session.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.3 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei stock index shed 1.1 per cent.

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