At 2:45PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 42 points at 28,884 and the 50-share Nifty slipped 13 points at 8,766.

Further, the government will announced Index of Industrial Production for February after market hours later today.

Meanwhile, global rating agency Fitch said that performance of state-owned banks would remain weak for a while even as the pace of non-performing assets has eased at some large banks. The agency also added that the government’s ability to provide substantial financial support to the banking system in a potential crisis is limited given the already high government debt burden.

The Indian rupee was trading lower at 62.35 to the US dollar compared to the previous close of 62.24 after the US currency appreciated overseas on the back of encouraging US jobs report.

SECTORS & STOCKS

Bankex and Healthcare indices were the top sectoral losers while Auto, Consumer Durables, Metal, Power, Oil and Gas were among the gainers.

Bank shares witnessed profit taking. HDFC Group shares HDFC and HDFC Bank were both down over 1.5% each contributing the most to the Sensex losses. Axis Bank and ICICI Bank were down 0.5% each.

However, SBI was up 2% after the global brokerage Barclays maintained its 'overweight' stance on SBI for a target of Rs 353. Barclays expects operating efficiency through better performance.

Cipla slipped over 2% after international brokerage CLSA downgraded the stock from 'underperform' to 'sell'. However, Dr Reddy's Labs and Sun Pharma reversed early losses and were up 0.4-0.8% each.

Pharma shares were trading mixed after recovery in select stocks.

Hindalco dropped over 1% as sentiment in the stock dampened after global aluminum major Alcoa reported lower-than-expected revenues.

State Bank of India advanced 2% after the global brokerage Barclays maintained its 'overweight' stance on SBI for a target of Rs 353. Barclays expects operating efficiency through better performance.

Telecom shares shrugged off the tariff ceilings by industry regulator TRAI. Bharti Airtel was up 1.3%, Idea Cellular gained 4% while Reliance Communications jumped nearly 15%.

Oil and Gas majors ONGC and RIL which had earlier edged higher on higher Brent crude price trimmed gains and were trading flat.

Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers said domestic passenger car sales grew 2.64% to 1,76,011 units in March, from 1,71,491 units in the same month of last year. Tata Motors was up 1.3% while Maruti Suzuki was marginally lower.

Motorcycle sales last month dipped 5.22% to 8,59,521 units as against 9,06,901 units a year earlier, SIAM said. Reacting to the news, Hero Motocorp slipped 0.8% while Bajaj Auto dipped 0.2%.

Shares of IDFC are up 2% after the company said it has got the shareholders approval for the demerger of its financial undertaking into IDFC Bank.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices outperformed the benchmarks up 0.5-1% each

The market breadth is firm on the BSE with 1,514 advances versus 1,065 declines.

LOBAL MARKETS

Japan's key share index Nikkei topped 20,000 on Friday for the first time in 15 years on hopes of stronger corporate earnings, and gained 2.4% on the week. The benchmark Nikkei rose as high as 20,006 before ending down 0.2% at 19,907.63. The rally has been driven by many factors, including hopes of higher shareholder returns, a rise in corporate earnings, a recovery in domestic consumption and more share buying, both real and imagined, by Japanese public investors.

European shares firmed up with Germany leading the gains after beter-than-expected industrial production data raised prospects that the economy in the euro zone is picking up pace. Germany's benchmark DAX was up nearly 1% while CAC-40 and FTSE-100 were both trading 0.2% higher.