The benchmark index was lower in noon trading amid a lot of volatility. Weak global markets and a pickup in inflation dented market sentiment. The early trends from the assembly elections in three states failed to lift the sentiment. The trends showed the Congress doing well in Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh. In Haryana, though it's far from the Congress sweep most expected, the party has struggled its way past the half-way mark of 45 seats in the 90-seat Assembly. The Sensex was trading at 16,931, down 77 points, while Nifty was down 26 points at 5,036. Inflation for the week ended October 10 rose 1.21 per cent from a year earlier, from 0.92 per cent in the previous week. Asian stock markets dropped on Thursday as weakness on Wall Street and confirmation of China's economic recovery led investors to take profits from a recent rally. Major Asian markets were lower by about 1 per cent, while oil retreated from a 2009 high. Investors in Asia were spooked by US markets falling late Wednesday after a leading analyst downgraded major US. bank Wells Fargo & Co. That touched off more fears about the financial sector and combined with growing anxiety about the pace of the market’s rise dragged the Dow below the 10,000 level. Meanwhile, figures showing China's economy expanded at a heady 8.9 percent in the third quarter, in line with market expectations, gave investors few reasons to wade deeper into the markets. Among the Sensex stocks, Infosys, up over 2 per cent, led the gainers on fund buying. Metal stocks Sterlite India advanced 1.5 per cent while Tata Steel was up 0.4 per cent. L&T, JP Asso and Tata Motors were among major losers, down between 2 per cent and 4 per cent.