Indian equities continued to trade in the negative owing to heavy sell-off witnessed across heavyweights and also because of weak global signals.

Bankex, metal and IT stocks registered a fall, while healthcare and consumer durable scrips moved up.

At 10.57 a. m., the 30-share index Sensex stood at 17,596.27 after falling 133.97 points.

In the meantime, the broad-based Nifty declined 42.85 points to trade at 5,277.75 with 34 components in the negative.

The Sensex, today, belled the day after registering a fall of 25.13 points at 17,705.11, whereas Nifty started the day on a flat note after surging 2.65 points at 5,323.25.

The major gainers in the Sensex pack included Cipla (2.23%), RCom (1.99%), Maruti Suzuki (1.36%), RIL (0.81%), BHEL and NTPC.

In contrast, the top losers in the list were Sterlite Ind (-3.11%), JSPL (-2.00%), HDFC (-1.92%), ICICI Bank (-1.85%), HUL (-1.77%), and HDFC Bank (-1.68%).

The BSE Midcap index gained 0.01% while the BSE smallcap index climbed 0.20%.

The overall market breadth remained weak with 1,206 advancements as compared to 1,242 declinations.

Among sectoral indices, the Bankex index remained weak by 133.61 points, followed by the Metal index, which delclined 172.74 points and the IT index shed 51.77 points.

In contrast, the HC index gained 45.12 points to stand at 5,803.24. (With Inputs from Agencies)