The Indian equity markets gave up morning gains and slipped into the red in Wednesday’s noon deals ahead of the monthly derivative contracts expiry tomorrow.

The S&P BSE Sensex hovered around 37,720 levels, after slipping nearly 400 points from day’s high of 38,140 levels. The broader Nifty50 index also gave up the 11,150-mark. Reliance Industries gained 2 per cent after the company announced that KKR will invest Rs 5,500 crore for 1.28 per cent stake in Reliance Retail. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel plunged 7 per cent and was the top Sensex laggard, followed by Tata Steel and NTPC (both down 3%).

Shares of Route Mobile rallied as high as 16 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) after foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) such as Goldman Sachs and Kuwait Investment Authority acquired shares worth of Rs 210 crore of the company.

The Nifty sectoral indices were trading mixed, with Nifty PSU Bank index, down 1.7 per cent, leading the list of losers.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap and SmallCap indexes were trading 0.7 per cent and 1.2 per cent higher, respectively.