Mumbai, Dec 10 (IANS): Profit-booking along with subdued global cues pulled the Indian equity indices lower during the mid-afternoon trade session on Thursday.

Accordingly, Nifty opened on a negative note and breached its 'Higher Lows' sequence after eight trading sessions.

In terms of sectors, cement stocks came under heavy selling pressure after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) started an investigation regarding anti-competitive behaviour witnessed in the sector.

At 1.35 pm, Sensex was trading at 45,721.43, lower by 382.07 points or 0.83 per cent from the previous close.

The Nifty50 was trading at 13,411.80, lower by 117.30 points or 0.87 per cent from the previous close.

"After many days, bears are controlling the market and intra-day bounces are getting sold off. However, the overall trend and derivatives data is quite positive and thus, one sould take this corrective move as a buying opportunity," said Jay Purohit, Technical and Derivatives Analyst, MOFSL.

"Today, the FMCG index is outperforming the market and showing tremendous strength. It is sustaining well above the trendline breakout level on weekly chart, which certainly bodes well for the bulls. Short-term traders should look for buying opportunities in FMCG names like Tata Consumer, HUL, Nestle and Britannia."

According to Gaurav Garg, Head of Research, CapitalVia Global Research: "Except metal and FMCGs, all other sectoral indices were trading in the red. UPL, Ultratech Cement, Tata Motors, Shreecem and M&M were the major losers on Nifty."