Mumbai, Oct. 24 -- The headline equity benchmarks continued to trade with modest losses in the mid-afternoon trade after the government refrained from confirming reports of a potential US-India trade deal, weighing on market sentiment. Investors also engaged in profit booking, dragging the Nifty below the 25,800 level.

PSU bank shares declined after advancing in the past trading session.

At 14:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, declined 409.21 points or 0.48% to 84,148.25. The Nifty 50 index fell 110.30 points or 0.43% to 25,781.75.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.30% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.27%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,638 shares rose and 2,459 shares fell. A...