The Indian equity benchmarks turned flat in late morning deals on Wednesday ahead of weekly expiry of index futures and option contracts. Gains in Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel NTPC and Bajaj Finance were offset with losses in HDFC twins, Asian Paints, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys. The Sensex declined as much as 489 points from the day’s highest level and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 17,523 after hitting high of 17,663. Meanwhile, most of the Asian markets were trading higher as US inflation data which came overnight was as bad as expected.