Mumbai: After gaining more than 300 points in the morning trade session, a benchmark index of Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) slipped into the red around noon on Wednesday.

It was marginally down by 16 points or 0.06 percent around noon.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also trading in the negative zone. It was marginally lower by 2.95 points or 0.04 percent at 8,124 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 27,023.71 points, was trading at 26,861.76 points (at 12.00 p.m.), down 15.72 points or 0.06 percent from the previous day\'s close at 26,877.48 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 27,299.80 points and a low of 26,750.01 points in the intra-day trade so far.

In Wednesday\'s trade, healthy buying was observed in interest-sensitive stocks like banks, automobile and capital goods.

However, metal, oil and gas and information technology (IT) sectors came under heavy selling pressure.

The S&P BSE Bank index rose by 137.96 points, followed by automobile index which gained by 103.85 points and capital goods index which was up by 77.21 points.

The S&P BSE metal index edged lower by 75.05 points, oil and gas index receded by 37.26 points and IT index was down 33.67 points.

Sensex slips into the red; metal stocks down