The key equity barometers traded with slight losses in early trade. Nifty opened at 24575 and hit a high of 24577 in first half hour of trade. Nifty IT, Nifty Pharma and Nifty Consumer Durables shares gained, while Nifty Private Bank and Nifty Metal shares declined. At 09:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, edged lower by 460.11 points or 0.59% to 78,082.33. The Nifty 50 index inched down 149.15 points or 0.61% to 24,434.65. The broader market outpaced the frontline indices. The BSE 150 MidCap Index lost 0.23% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index moved higher by 0.24%. The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 2229 shares rose and 2557 shares fell. A total of 241 shares were unchanged. Nifty IT index added 0.50% to 31789. The index has posted strong gains of 12.93% in last one month and inched down 8.43% over last one year. Coforge, edging up 1.44%, led the gainers followed by Persistent Systems, gaining 1.28% and HCL Technologies, up 1.03%, respectively. Out of 10 index constituents, 8 are reporting gains today. Nifty Pharma index inched up 0.36% to 26575. The index has risen slightly by 3.14% in last one month and recorded robust gains of 22.56% over last one year. Gland Pharma, moving higher 7.81%, led the gainers followed by Dr Reddy's Labs, inching higher 3.46% and Sai Life, adding 3.22%, respectively. Out of 20 index constituents, 12 are reporting gains today. Nifty Private Bank index edged lower by 0.98%. The index has slipped by 1.96% in last one month and posted modest gains of 2.82% over last one year. Axis Bank, slipping 1.40%, led the losers followed by IndusInd Bank, easing 1.03% and ICICI Bank, edging lower 0.88%, respectively. All 10 index constituents are reporting losses today. In NIFTY500, C P C L is the top gainer today, registering sharp gains of 9.82% to Rs 1362.50. The counter has rallied 88.15% in last one year. It recorded an average volume quantity of 154778.83 in last five sessions compared to 167953.45 over last one month. Asian markets posted modest gains on Tuesday. China’s Shanghai composite is lower by 0.81%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is trading lower by 1.01%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 is significantly higher by 2.08%.