Markets continue to tread lower in afternoon trade; Asian Paints down 3%

Asian Paints, Axis Bank, GAIL and HDFC lost the most on BSE Sensex

Benchmark indices continued to tread lower in afternoon, with the Nifty struggling below 9400 level as investors turned cautious ahead of inflation data and booked profits in recent outperformers.
 
Consumer price inflation (CPI) is expected to have eased to a three-month low of 3.49% in April from 3.81% the previous month, according to Reuters poll. The government will also unveil the new series of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) as well as Wholesale Price Index (WPI), with 2011-12 as the base year, later in the day.
 
Both Sensex and Nifty hit record highs of in the previous two