Mumbai, Aug 9 (IANS): Negative global cues on the back of geo-political tensions, coupled with heavy selling pressure in healhcare, automobile and banking stocks, pulled the key Indian equity indices lower during the mid-afternoon session on Wednesday.

Around 1 p.m., the NSE Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) traded below the psychologically important 10,000-point mark at 9,942.25 points -- down 36.30 points or 0.36 per cent from its previous session's close.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, too, slipped below the 32,000-level.

The Sensex, which opened at 31,926.14 points, traded at 31,891.77 points -- down 122.42 points, or 0.38 per cent from its previous close at 32,014.19 points.

The Sensex has so far touched a high of 31,965.40 points and a low of 31,843.45 points during the intra-day trade.

The BSE market breadth was skewed in favour of bears -- with 1,702 declines and 676 advances.

"The BSE Sensex opened lower today against the previous session's closing. The broader NSE's Nifty, too, fell in the morning hours. The Indian rupee opened lower against the US dollar," Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls, told IANS.

"The shares of Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Mahindra and Mahindra rose, whereas the shares of ICICI Bank and Sun Pharma fell. Stocks in Asia declined with US equity-index futures and the South Korean currency tumbled as investors took a risk-off approach after the US and North Korea exchanged threats amid escalating tensions between the two nations."

On Tuesday, the benchmark indices were dragged lower following a surprise regulatory directive by SEBI, along with broadly negative global cues.

The Nifty50 fell by 78.85 points or 0.78 per cent to close at 9,978.55 points, while the Sensex closed at 32,014.19 points -- down 259.48 points, or 0.80 per cent.