Mumbai, Oct 4 (IANS): Indian equity markets were trading in the red on Friday following weak cues from US markets.

At 9:47 A.M., the Sensex was down 279 points or 0.34 per cent at 82,216 and Nifty was down 69 points or 0.27 per cent at 25,180.

Selling was driven by midcap and smallcap stocks. Nifty midcap 100 index was down 413 points or 0.70 per cent at 58,652 and Nifty smallcap 100 index was down 75 points or 0.40 per cent at 18,876.

In the Sensex pack, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finserv, NTPC, Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement, Reliance Industries, L&T, SBI, Bharti Airtel, SBI, Nestle and M&M were the top losers.

TCS, IndusInd Bank, HCL Tech, ITC, Infosys, Wipro and Tech Mahindra were the top gainers.

Among the sectoral indices, Fin Service, FMCG, metal, realty, energy and infra were major losers.

IT, PSU Bank and auto were major gainers.

The broader market is in a downward trend.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE) 1,335 shares were in the red and 814 shares were in the green.

Mixed trading is taking place in Asian markets.

Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul are in the green while Jakarta and Bangkok are in the red. US markets closed in the red on Thursday.

According to market experts, "The sharp correction of 2.1 per cent in the Nifty yesterday was more due to the massive Foreign Institutional Investors’ selling rather than fears of Middle East tensions escalating. The last three days have witnessed huge FII selling of Rs 30,614 crore in the cash market."

"The market will start responding to the Q2 results which will start flowing from next week onwards. Leading banks are poised for a recovery," they added.

The FIIs sold equities worth Rs 15,243 crore on October 3, while domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 12,914 crore on the same day.