The key equity barometers traded with slight losses in early trade. Nifty opened at 24224 and hit a high of 24270 in first half hour of trade. Nifty Auto, Nifty Pharma and Nifty Healthcare Index shares advanced, while Nifty IT and Nifty PSU Bank shares declined. At 09:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, lost 351.03 points or 0.45% to 77,377.13. The Nifty 50 index posted modest losses of 71.85 points or 0.30% to 24,215.80. The broader market performed better than frontline indices. The BSE 150 MidCap Index edged lower by 0.23% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index edged higher by 0.11%. The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 2132 shares gained and 2693 shares retreated. A total of 230 shares were unchanged. Nifty Auto index moved higher by 0.59% to 29350. The index has added 7.67% in last one month and recorded robust gains of 16.12% over last one year. Tube Investments, rising 8.97%, led the gainers followed by Bosch, up 3.04% and Sona BLW Precis., inching higher 1.58%, respectively. Out of 15 index constituents, 8 are reporting gains today. Nifty Pharma index edged higher by 0.19% to 26392. The index has posted modest gains of 2.72% in last one month and jumped 18.97% over last one year. Piramal Pharma, gaining 2.42%, led the gainers followed by Biocon, edging up 1.72% and Torrent Pharma., adding 1.67%, respectively. Out of 20 index constituents, 11 are reporting gains today. Nifty IT index retreated 1.64%. The index has climbed 5.41% in last one month and declined 11.05% over last one year. Infosys, edging lower 2.05%, led the losers followed by HCL Technologies, down 1.97% and Coforge, easing 1.55%, respectively. All 10 index constituents are reporting losses today. In NIFTY500, Tube Investments is the top gainer today, jumping 8.97% to Rs 2972.75. The counter has fallen 10.15% in last one year. It recorded an average volume quantity of 25794.50 in last five sessions compared to 68695.23 over last one month. Asian markets tumbled on Tuesday. China’s Shanghai composite is up 0.20%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is marginally higher by 0.22%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 is firmly lower by 2.54%.