Mumbai [India], January 19 (ANI): The Indian equities markets were reeling under selling pressure for the second consecutive day on Wednesday with benchmark Sensex slumping 525 points and Nifty sliding below 18,000 points mark.

There was heavy selling pressure in IT, FMCG and banking and financial stocks. Infosys slumped by around two per cent. Wipro, HCL Technologies and TCS were down by close to one-and-a-half per cent.

The 30 stock SP BSE Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange was trading at 60,229.34 points are around 12.25 pm, which is 525.52 points or 0.86 per cent down from its previous day's close at 60,754.86 points.

The Sensex opened in the positive at 60,845.59 points and touched a high of 60,870.17 points. The index slipped to a low of 60,148.77 points.

The broader Nifty 50 of the National Stock Exchange was trading at 17,950.45 points, which is 0.90 per cent or 162.60 points down from its previous day's close at 18,113.05 points.

The Nifty touched a high of 18,129.20 points and low of 17,941.70 points.

Asian Paints slumped 2.77 per cent to Rs 3279.05. UltraTech Cement slumped 2.48 per cent to Rs 7378.95. The scrip fell sharply for the second consecutive day after announcing third quarter results. UltraTech Cement on Monday said its net profit rose by 8 per cent to Rs 1,708 crore for the third quarter of the current financial year as against Rs 1,584 crore recorded in the corresponding period of the last fiscal. The increase in profit is mainly because of a one-time gain of Rs 535 crore in tax for earlier years.

Bajaj Finance 2.40 per cent down at Rs 7561.50; Infosys 1.86 per cent down at Rs 1885.15; HCL Technologies 1.85 per cent down at Rs 1197.30; ICICI Bank 1.79 per cent down at Rs 808.65 and Hindustan Unilever 1.77 per cent down at Rs 2327 were among the major Sensex losers.

Only three of the 30 scrips that are part of the Sensex were trading in the positive. Nestle India was trading 0.17 per cent higher at Rs 19403.95. Maruti Suzuki 0.11 per cent higher at Rs 7924.35 and Tata Steel 0.12 per cent higher at Rs 1195.90 were the only Sensex gainers. (ANI)