Mumbai, July 10 - The downtrend at the Indian equities markets continued Friday, with a key index losing its way towards closing bell after rising more than 140 points to end trade over 253 points in the red.

The 30-scrip benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the Sensex, which opened at 13,803.12 points, fell 253.24 points or 1.84 percent to 13,504.22 points.

The fall was made steeper by heavyweight Reliance Industries falling about 4 percent or Rs.73.95 to Rs.1,778.40.

The Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) too closed lower at 4,003.9 points, down 1.89 percent.

Broader market indices similarly came under selling pressure, with the BSE midcap index ending 1.92 percent down and the BSE smallcap index closing 1.79 percent lower.

Of the 13 sectoral indices on the BSE, those for energy, power, and capital goods lost the most, while only IT stocks led by Wipro and Infosys ended on the gaining list.

The market breadth was negative with 772 stocks advancing compared to 1,785 declining. Eighty-one remained unchanged.

'This whole week the markets have been falling, and this was going to happen anyway. The markets had rallied without fundamentals and were running on excess liquidity,' said SMC Capitals equity head Jagannadham Thunuguntla.

'The budget was the trigger for the fall. In the absence of major policy announcements, the markets just plummeted,' added Thunuguntla.