Fresh selling pulled key benchmark indices in red in the afternoon trade after rebounding sharply from day's low in highly choppy trade. The market fell today as political uncertainty ahead of state elections and lower US index futures offset expectations of a further cut in interest rates and gains in Asian stocks. Polling for assembly elections in Chhattisgarh began on Friday, 14 November 2008. Chhattisgarh is the first state out of a total of five states in which polling is being held for assembly elections. These polls are widely seen as a test of the popularity of the country's main political parties viz. the Congress and the BJP, ahead of national elections in the first half of calendar year 2009. Lower US index futures offsets firm Asian markets. Trading in US index futures indicated the Dow could slide 54 points at the opening bell. Most Asian markets rose today, 14 November 2008, snapping a four-day losing streak, as investors stepped in to snap up battered stocks. Key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan were up by between 0.34% and 3.02%. However, South Korea's Seoul Composite was down 0.02%. Lower interest rates boost stocks as they help rise in corporate bottomline by way of lower borrowing costs. Softening inflation will enable the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to further cut interest rates to create more liquidity in a slowing economy. RBI has already signaled an easier rate regime and cut a key short term rate earlier this month along with cuts in bank reserve ratios to free up funds for lending. Inflation, as measured by the wholesale price index, declined sharply to 8.98% in the week ending 1 November 2008 from 10.72% in the previous week mainly due to sharp drop in oil prices. At 13:59 IST, the BSE 30-share Sensex was down 213 points, to 9,323.09. The S&P CNX Nifty lost 47 points, to 2,800.75.