Mumbai, Apr 17 (IANS): After an initial trade in the green, key Indian equity indices traded on a flat-to-negative note on Tuesday afternoon tracking negative cues from the benchmark Asian indices and selling pressure on IT, auto and capital goods stocks.

However, healthy buying in consumer durables and metal stocks and fast moving comsumer goods (FMCG) restricted further losses.

At 12.55 p.m. the wider Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange was trading lower by 19.40 points or 0.18 per cent at 10,508.95 points.

The barometer 30-scrip Sensex of the BSE, which opened at 34,381.80 points, traded at 34,270.46 points (12.55 p.m.)-- down 34.97 points or 0.10 per cent from its previous session's close.

The Sensex has so far touched a high of 34,413.83 points and a low of 34,229.83 points during the intra-day trade.

The BSE market breadth was bearish with 1,243 declines and 1,182 advances.

On Monday, healthy macro-economic data, along with expectations of robust quarterly corporate earnings, led the equity indices to close on a higher note for the eighth consecutive session.

The Nifty50 was up 47.75 points or 0.46 per cent to close at 10,528.35 points, while the Sensex closed at 34,305.43 points -- up 112.78 points or 0.33 per cent.

So far on Tuesday, the top gainers on the BSE Sensex were Power Grid, NTPC, Hindustan Unilever, Mahindra and Mahindra and Coal India, while Wipro, Axis Bank, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors and Tata Motors (DVR) were the major losers.

On NSE,the major gainers so far were Power Grid, NTPC and Hindustan Unilever, while the top losers were Wipro, Tata Motors and Sun Pharma.