Mumbai, May 4 (IANS) Negative global cues, along with lower crude oil prices and caution ahead of quarterly results, depressed the Indian equity markets on Wednesday.
This led the key indices of the Indian equity markets to trade in the red during the late-afternoon session.
The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) declined by 42.30 points or 0.55 percent, at 7,704.70 points.
The barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 25,210.87 points, traded at 25,106.45 points (at 2.45 p.m.) -- down 123.25 points or 0.49 percent from the previous close at 25,229.70 points.
The Sensex has so far touched a high of 25,245.70 points and a low of 25,091.38 points during the intra-day trade.
The BSE market breadth was tilted in favour of the bears -- with 1,691 declines and 772 advances.
Both the key Indian indices had ended in the negative territory during the previous trade session on Tuesday. The barometer index had declined by 207.27 points or 0.81 percent.
Similarly, the NSE Nifty had closed lower by 58.90 points or 0.75 percent.
Initially, the key indices opened on a flat-to-negative note, in-sync with their Asian peers. The equity markets also took cues from the negative close of the US and European indices on Tuesday.
Asian markets remained subdued after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned about the possibility of a slowdown in China and Japan.
Besides, profit booking and caution ahead of Q4 (fourth quarter) results dampened sentiments.
In addition, investors were disappointed after a key macro-economic data showed slight decline in services output for April.
However, value buying at lower levels and expectations that key economic legislation will get passed through the parliament supported prices.
"Negative global cues, decline in manufacturing activity across the globe, caution ahead of key quarterly results and profit booking dented investors' sentiments," Anand James, chief market strategist, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, told IANS.
"Value buying at lower levels and expectations that bankruptcy code will get passed through the parliament supported prices."
Vaibhav Agarwal, vice president and research head at Angel Broking said that going forward, quarterly results will influence the equity markets.
"Earnings will act as the catalyst for the markets along with the import data on the domestic front while global cues could remain volatile considering the US payroll data," Agarwal said.
