Equity benchmarks pared early losses in mid-day trading on Tuesday, though they remained in negative territory amid persistent global recession worries and volatile market conditions. At 12.30 pm, the Sensex traded at 73,983.69, down 131.48 points or 0.18 per cent from its previous close, while the Nifty50 stood at 22,449.60, slipping 10.70 points or 0.05 per cent.

Markets opened lower following Monday’s steep decline, continuing the bearish sentiment triggered by Wall Street’s worst performance of the year. However, buying in select banking and pharma stocks helped indices recover some ground from their morning lows.

IndusInd Bank remained the biggest drag on markets, plummeting 25.83 per cent with extraordinarily high trading volumes of nearly 6 crore shares. The steep decline follows the morning slump, when the stock had dropped 15 per cent at market open. IT stocks also continued their downward trajectory, with Infosys falling 2.76 per cent, Wipro declining 1.74 per cent, and other tech shares facing selling pressure.

On the positive side, Trent emerged as the top gainer, rising 3.07 per cent, followed by Sun Pharma, which advanced 2.93 per cent. ICICI Bank gained 2.19 per cent, Bharat Electronics added 1.99 per cent, and BPCL climbed 1.87 per cent, providing some support to the indices.

The broader market displayed pronounced weakness, with declines outnumbering advances by a ratio of more than 2:1. Out of 3,906 stocks traded on the BSE, 2,541 stocks declined, while only 1,220 advanced. Additionally, 238 stocks hit their lower circuit limits, while just 143 touched upper circuits. The market saw 193 stocks reaching 52-week lows compared to only 51 hitting 52-week highs.

Sectoral indices presented a mixed picture. The Nifty Bank index declined 0.78 per cent to 47,842.90, while the Nifty Financial Services index bucked the trend, rising 0.39 per cent to 23,147.55. The Nifty Next 50 and Nifty Midcap Select indices were down 0.14 per cent and 0.21 per cent, respectively.

Market experts suggest that the Nifty has key support at 22,200-22,100 levels, with technical indicators pointing to stronger long-term support around 22,000. Analysts continue to watch upcoming economic data releases, including US and India CPI figures, which could provide further direction to the markets in the coming sessions.

The rupee, which opened weaker at 87.33 against the dollar, added to the overall cautious sentiment in domestic markets.