The Sensex was trading lower by 88 points, while the S&P CNX Nifty was down 27 points at 5200 points at 9.20 am IST.

Among the Nifty stocks that lost ground in early trade were ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, DLF and Tata Motors, all of which shed more than 1%.

The early gainers in trade were Infosys, GAIL and Dr Reddy's Laboratories.

In Asia, most of the markets were trading lower including the Singapore's Strait Times, the Korean Kospi, Hong Kong's Hang Sang and the Japanese Nikkei.

Expectations for bold actions from the European Central Bank had run very high after Mario Draghi, the ECB's President had said last week that that the ECB would take whatever it take to preserve the Euro.

However, markets were a little disappointed as they were awaiting for concrete measures to be announced from the ECB. This sparked a sell off in Europe, US and in Asia.

All eyes are on the US jobs data to be announced later today. A lower than expected jobs data would give fresh rise to hopes of a stimulus in the US.

GoodReturns.in