Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in the negative terrain during the afternoon session on Tuesday on profit-booking by participants ahead of the February series Futures & Options expiry on Thursday and amidst mixed cues from fellow Asian peers followed by holiday in the US markets on Monday.

At 1:04 hours, the 30-share barometer index of Bombay Stock Exchange, Sensex was at 28,623.68 down by 37.9 points or 0.13 per cent while the NSE Nifty was at 8,867.95 down by 11.25 points or 0.13 per cent.

Also, investors keenly eyed the minutes of the US Fed meeting this week for possible insight into how members see Trump’s polices, too influenced sentiment at D-Street.

Markets witnessed selling pressure mainly in the FMCG and Teck sector stocks.

Major show spoilers were Bharti Airtel Ltd. (Rs. 367.85,-2.08%), Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (Rs. 2475.00,-1.26%), ITC Ltd. (Rs. 262.70,-1.18%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Rs. 674.55,-0.74%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 1306.15,-0.69%), among others.

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were Axis Bank Ltd. (Rs. 492.00,+2.37%), Asian Paints Ltd. (Rs. 985.45,+1.03%), Tata Steel Ltd. (Rs. 490.50,+0.78%), Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (Rs. 859.35,+0.77%), Reliance Industries Ltd. (Rs. 1080.40,+0.62%), among others.

The market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was positive. On BSE, out of the total 2873 shares traded, 1487 advanced while 1201 shares declined and 185 remained unchanged.