Indian equities remained quiet during afternoon trade, following negative Asian markets.

The Sensex, which belled the day at 17,981.06, stood at 17,942.41, down 49.59 points (0.28%) as against its last closure at 17,992.

At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broad-based Nifty was trading 0.06% up at 5,401.05.

The BSE midcap and the BSE smallcap index gained 0.74% & 0.72% respectively.

Consumer durables stocks were on the increase, a few banking and metals shares witnessed buying action.

Real estate and IT scrips remained under selling pressure.

Worries of an American recovery stumbling fuelled by a subdued estimation by the US Federal Reserve, scared other major Asian bourses.

The Japanese Nikkei ended the day after losing 1.64% at 9,537.3 points, whereas the South Korean Kospi shut the shop at 1,759.33, down 0.65%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.53% down to trade at 20,982.07, whilst the Chinese Shanghai Composite index lost 0.34% at 2,639.23.