From correspondents in Maharashtra, India, 04:00 PM IST

Indian equity markets continued to trade in the red early Friday afternoon. Realty, banking and IT stocks were under selling pressure.

At 1:00 p.m., the 30-share benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the Sensex, at 14,180.32 points, down 143.97 points or 1.01 percent from its closing figure Thursday. It had touched a low of 14,046.42 points earlier Friday.

At the same time the broader based S and amp;P CNX Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange was at 4,268.10 points, down 22.20 points or 0.52 percent from its previous close.

The market breadth was negative. On BSE, 1,081 shares advanced, 1,365 declined and 91 remained unchanged.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)