Sensex, Nifty off to a muted start; small and midcaps outperform

Within the blue-chip Nifty50 pack, UltraTech Cement was the top gainer with an upside of 2%. Other gainers were ICICI Bank, L&T, NTPC, LTIMindtree, and Bajaj Finance. On the other hand, stocks like Apollo Hospitals, Hindalco, M&M, and HDFC Bank came under selling pressure with losses of up to 1.6%.