Mumbai, May 13 (IANS): A benchmark index of the Indian equities markets was trading below more than half a percent in the pre-afternoon trade Monday.

There was heavy selling pressure in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), capital goods, information technology (IT), metal and automobile stocks plummetted.

However, scrips of oil and gas and bank companies rallied.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened in the red at 20,073.41 points, was trading at 19,983.14 points in pre-afternoon session around 11.50 a.m., down 139.18 points or 0.69 percent from its previous day close at 20,122.32 points.

Sensex touched a high of 20,109.08 points and low of 19,962.61 points in the intra-day trade.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also trading flat 43.20 points or 0.71 percent down at 6,064.05 points.

There was heavy selling pressure in FMCG, capital goods, IT, metal and automobile stocks.

The BSE FMCG index was down 148.72 points, capital goods index was down 117.08 points, followed by IT index down 67.99 points, metal index down 51.01 points and automobile index down 47.66 points.

While stocks of oil and gas and bank companies rallied.

The oil and gas index was up 28.56 points followed by bank index up 13.82 points.