Mumbai, Oct 28 (IANS) A key index of the Indian equities markets slid into the red Wednesday afternoon after climbing back into the positive terrain briefly.
The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened lower at 16,335.78 points was at 16,325.87 points, 0.17 percent or 27.53 points below Tuesday’s close at 16,353.4 points around 12.50 p.m.

Around the same time, the S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also traced a similar path and was ruling at 4,838 points, down 0.18 percent from its last close.

But broader market indices were holding on to some gains, with the BSE midcap index 0.37 percent up, while the BSE small cap index was trading 0.1 percent higher.

The market breadth was negative, with 1,090 stocks advancing, 1,399 declining and 70 remaining unchanged.

Among the gainers this time on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel, up 4.57 percent; Tata Motors, up 3.15 percent; Wipro, up 2.54 percent and L&T, up 2.45 percent.

Among the losers were Maruti Suzuki, down 3.01 percent; ICICI Bank, down 3.01 percent; Reliance Communications, down 2.35 percent and HDFC Bank, down 2.21 percent.

Asian markets were hit by the consolidation spree as well.

The primary index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Hang Seng, was ruling 344.4 points or 1.55 percent lower at 21,825.19 points.

At the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the composite index was ruling 0.33 percent up at 3,031.33 points.

The Kospi, benchmark index of the Korean Stock Exchange, was also in the green at 1,609.71 points, up 39.82 points or 2.41 percent.

However, the Nikkei, a key index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, closed 137.41 points or 1.35 percent lower at 10,075.05 points.