Indian shares were flat on Wednesday in absence of major cues, with gains in IT and realty stocks countering losses in banking and metal stocks. The benchmark indices witnessed a rally over the past seven sessions, fuelled by optimism that the current coalition government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi would return to power after the general election starting next month.

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At 1:00 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 38,389, 25 points, while the broader NSE Nifty50 was ruling at 11,521, down 11 points. Meanwhile, broader markets underperformed benchmark indices with Nifty MidCap and Nifty Smallcap declining 0.4 percent each.

Indiabulls Housing Finance, Infosys, Hindalco, Wipro, and Dr Reddy's Labs were top gainers on Nifty50 rising up to 3 percent. Oil marketing companies Hindustan Petroleum Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Indian Oil were among the biggest losers on the NSE index, falling between 3.8 percent to 4.7 percent.

Nifty IT gained nearly 1 percent during the day. Infosys and Wipro were among the top gainers on the index, rising 2.3 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.

The Nifty Auto index fell 0.8 percent. Bharat Forge, Motherson Sumi, Maruti Suzuki, and Eicher Motors were down over 1 percent each.

Vodafone Idea fell nearly 8 percent after the company said that its board of directors has approved a proposal for its rights issue worth Rs 25,000 crore.

SpiceJet gained over 7 percent in early morning trade on Wednesday on reports that lessors offered Jet Airways' grounded planes to the airline. Jet Airways fell 6.5 percent on the development.

Globally, Asian shares got off to a cautious start on Wednesday, holding close to six-month highs on hopes the US Federal Reserve will stick to a dovish stance and unveil a plan to stop cutting bond holdings later this year.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ticked down 0.1 percent from a six-month high touched the previous day. Japan’s Nikkei was also down 0.1 percent.