NEW DELHI: Metal and mining stocks Hindalco Industries (down 1.18 per cent), Hindustan Zinc (down 1.13 per cent) and Vedanta (down 0.85 per cent) were trading down during afternoon trade on Thursday, keeping the sectoral index in the red.

The Nifty Metal index was trading 0.17 per cent down at 3,988 around 12:45 pm (IST).

Shares of National Aluminium Company (NALCO) (down 0.80 per cent), Steel Authority of India (SAIL) (down 0.60 per cent), JSW Steel (down 0.48 per cent) and Jindal Steel & Power (down 0.31 per cent) were also down around that time.

However, shares of Jindal Stainless (Hisar) (up 2.53 per cent), MOIL (up 2.26 per cent), NMDC (up 1.28 per cent), Tata Steel (up 0.81 per cent), Coal India (up 0.36 per cent) and APL Apollo Tubes (up 0.35 per cent) were up in the index around that time.

Equity benchmarks were trading flat, tracking global cues. Investors were cautious after the fiscal deficit data reached at 113.7 per cent of the full year's target.

The NSE Nifty50 index was 4 points down at 10,489, while the BSE Sensex was 36 points down at 34,148.

Among the 50 stocks in the Nifty50 index, 30 were trading in the green, while 20 were in the red.

BPCL, Aurobindo Pharma, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel and Ambuja Cements were among the top gainers in the Nifty50 index, while ICICI Bank, Lupin, Hindalco Industries, Infosys and UPL were among the top losers.