The key Indian equity indices traded in the negative territory on Thursday morning after a choppy start to the session, with the BSE Sensex down by around 125 points.

The decline in the index-heavyweights -- HDFC Bank and RIL weighed in on the Sensex. Around 10.25 a.m., Sensex was trading at 52,929.62, lower by 125.14 points or 0.24 per cent from its previous close of 53,054.76.

It opened at 53,065.69 and has so far touched an intra-day high of 53,103.03 and a low of 52,917.56 points.

sensex

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange was trading at 15,838.65, lower by 41.00 points or 0.26 per cent from its previous close.

Manish Hathiramani, technical analyst with Deen Dayal Investments said: "The market continues to struggle around the 15,900 level. If we manage to get past this hurdle on a closing basis, the Nifty can scale higher to 16,100."

"On the downside, the index has a good support at 15,400 and and until we do not disrespect that, the overall trend of the market continues to remain positive," he said.

Petrol and diesel prices continued their upward march on Thursday, the second successive day of rate increase, taking the prices to cross new highs across the country.