Mumbai, Dec 18 (IANS): The key equity market indices trimmed their major losses during the afternoon session of trade on Tuesday on the back of gains by the domestic currency.

IT along with financial stocks dragged the benchmark index down.

Earlier the BSE Sensex and Nifty opened in red ending gains in five consecutive trading sessions and giving investors an opportunity to book profit.

Sensex lost around 200 points during the initial session, only to pare losses to trade around 70 points lower during the afternoon session.

At 1.40 p.m., the Sensex traded 73.74 points lower at 36,196.33 and the Nifty50 traded 26.10 points lower at 10,862.25, from the previous close.

Both global and domestic markets were also subdued as investors traded with caution ahead of the US Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) two-day meet starting on Tuesday.

The committee is expected to raise interest rates which has kept the sentiments tepid, analysts said.

The Indian rupee was trading 71.01 (1.40 p.m) per US dollar from its previous close of 71.55.