From correspondents in Maharashtra, India, 04:30 PM IST

After finishing in the green Thursday, Indian equities markets again slipped into the red Friday with a key index shedding more than 264 points to again go below the psychologically important 9,000 mark by the close of trading.

The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) finished Friday at 8,965.20, down 264.55 points or 2.87 percent from its previous close Thursday at 9,229.75 points.

The Sensex opened some 25 points lower at 9,204.69 points, hit a high of 9,340.69 before slipping to its closing value.

The broader-based 50-share S and amp;P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), also showed a similar trend and closed at 2714.40, down 73.6 points or 2.64 percent from its previous close Thursday at 2788.00 points.

The BSE midcap index finished at 2,892.95, down 29.85 points or 1.02 percent from its previous close Thursday at 2,922.80 points.

The BSE smallcap index closed at 3,323.54, down 8.26 points or 0.25 percent from its previous close Thursday at 3,331.80 points.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)