MUMBAI: Benchmarks were off day’s lows as buying activity emerged near crucial support levels. Metals, oil&gas and power pared some losses while capital goods space was marginally in the green.

Earlier in the day, equities had come under intense selling pressure after reports that India's economy is expected to grow at 7.2 percent in 2009-10. Sentiments turned bearish on concerns that the government may start unwinding fiscal stimulus in the forthcoming budget to reduce fiscal deficit.

At 1:01 pm, Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex was at 15791.20, down 124.45 points or 0.78 per cent. The index hit a low of 15651.99 and high of 15954.27.

National Stock Exchange’s Nifty was at 4719.20, down 38.05 points or 0.80 per cent. The index bounced back from close to its 200 DMA of 4650 by touching intraday low of 4675.40. It touched a high of 4769.95 in trade so far.

BSE Midcap Index was down 0.52 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index slipped 0.23 per cent.

Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Metal Index was down 1.95 per cent, BSE Oil&gas Index declined 1.10 per cent and BSE Power Index slipped 0.85 per cent.

Tata Steel (-4.37%), Hindalco (-3.71%), Tata Motors (-2.94%), Reliance Infrastructure (-1.81%) and DLF (-1.78%) were amongst the top Nifty losers.

Bharti Airtel (1.78%), Sun Pharma (1.37%), Hero Honda (1.11%), L&T (0.99%) and Reliance Communications (0.94%) resisted the decline.

Market breadth turned negative on the BSE with 1490 declines and 1151 advances.