After a couple of hours into trade on Monday, the benchmark index for Indian equities was trying to pare its early morning losses and was ruling 28 points lower.

After the Reserve Bank of India's Friday evening decision to hike key policy rates by 25 basis points each, the markets had begun the day with a negative bias.

At 11 a. m. the 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,481.96 points, was ruling at 17,549.40 points, 28.83 points or 0.16 percent lower than its previous close at 17,578.23 points.

The broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty at the National Stock Exchange (NSE), was ruling at 5,247.35 points against the previous close at 5,262.8 points, a loss of 0.29 percent or 15.45 points.

A similar trend was reflected by broader markets indices with the BSE midcap index ruling 0.14 percent lower and the BSE smallcap index up 0.16 percent.

Majority of the selling pressure was faced by realty, auto, banking, and consumer durables scrips. Most other Asian markets ended trade on a mixed note.

Hong Kong's Hang was down 1.69 percent at 21,009.1 points, while the Chinese Shanghai composite index was flat at 3,066.62 points, down a meager 0.04 percent. (With Inputs from Agencies)