Mumbai, Sept. 29 -- The key equity benchmarks pared all the gains and traded near flat line with negative bias in the early afternoon trade. Caution prevailed in the market ahead of tomorrow's NSE F&O contract expiry, dragging sentiment lower. The Nifty traded around the 24,650 mark. Investors are monitoring IPO participation, India-US trade talks and global cues.

Oil & gas stocks jumped after declining in the past five trading session.

At 12:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex slipped 22.84 points or 0.03% to 80,406.19. The Nifty 50 index lost 3.10 points or 0.01% to 24,651.60.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.06% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 0.28%.

The market breadth was negative. On th...