Mumbai, June 9 (IANS): A day after it touched the lowest levels since October, the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) was trading in the red in the late afternoon trade session on Tuesday.

It was down by 32 points or 0.12 percent.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also trading in the negative zone. It was trading 25.20 points or 0.31 percent down at 8,018.95 points.

The Sensex of the S&P BSE, which opened at 26,510.29 points, was trading at 26,491.46 points (at 2.45 p.m.), down 31.63 points or 0.12 percent from the previous day's close at 26,523.09 points.

The Sensex has touched a high of 26,604.65 points and a low of 26,446.50 points during the intra-day trade so far.

According to the Angel Broking, the Indian markets opened in the negative territory tracking SGX Nifty and other Asian peers.

The firm said the Indian markets continued their downtrend on Monday. Investors were anxious over the US Fed rate hike decision, delays over Greece loan repayment, weaker monsoon forecast, cautious RBI (Reserve Bank of India) stance on growth and selling pressure by the FII (Foreign Institutional Investors).

During Monday's late afternoon trade session, heavy selling was observed in the healthcare, information technology (IT), capital goods, technology, entertainment and media (TECK) and automobile sectors.

However, healthy buying was seen in the metal, consumer durables and banking stocks.

The S&P BSE healthcare index receded by 187.74 points, followed by IT index declined by 70.38 points, capital goods index decreased by 47.50 points, TECK index fell by 42.21 points and the automobile index was down by 10.81 points.

The S&P BSE metal index gained by 81.19 points, consumer durables index rose by 69.93 points and banking index was up by 19.49 points.