After a strong rally on Thursday, the market struggled to gain in the opening hour on Friday. The Sensex traded down with 53.85 points at 26956.29 and the Nifty slipped 13.10 points at 8166.40.
NTPC, Maruti, Tata Motors and TCS were among top gainers while Bharti Airtel, Lupin, ONGC, ICICI Bank and Coal India were among losers in the Sensex.
Gold hovered below a 3.5 month high after strong US inflation data supported the dollar, but the metal was set to post its biggest weekly jump in four weeks on bets the Federal Reserve will not hike interest rates this year.