The Sensex was down 53 points in trade, while the Nifty was down 23 points in early trade. Private sector banking names which were badly hit in trade on Thursday continued to grind lower with Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and IndusInd Bank all weak in trade.

Heavyweight, ITC was also trading lower by almost 1 per cent, which pushed indices lower. However, Reliance supported the market with a 1 per cent gain in trade.

Other notable gainers from the Nifty were the technology stocks including TCS and Infosys. Metal stocks continued to be hammered lower with notable losers being Hindalco and Jindal Steel.

Hindustan Unilever was trading marginally lower ahead of the parent companies offer to acquire additional shares in the company.

Bharti Airtel was trading higher despite losing net additions in mobile subscribers to rivals.

PSU banking stocks continued to be badly battered in trade. Among the notable losers were Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank and IDBI Bank.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia continued to drift lower following weak overnight closings in the US markets.

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