The Sensex was marginally higher by 3 points in early trade, while the Nifty gained 1 point. Shares of HDFC fell almost 1 per cent after the company was downgraded by Goldman Sachs as "sell" citing increased competition for the company.

Other Nifty stocks that lost ground in trade were Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Hindustan Unilever, Hindalco and Wipro

On the other hand stocks that rallied were Infosys, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Tata Power and Sun Pharma. PSU banking stocks that came in for heavy selling pressure on Thursday saw value buying with Canara Bank, IDBI Bank, IOB, Indian Bank and Punjab National Bank all trading higher.

Realty stocks, however, gained with the Realty index jumping 1 per cent after reports that P/E investors are increasingly showing interest in the real estate business.

Among the real estate stocks that jumped were DB Realty, Unitech, Indiabulls, Oberoi Realty, Parsvnath, Sobha and HDIL.

Meanwhile, Hindustan Motors gained 1 per cent following reports that it was in talks with global players to utilise its spare capacity at the Chennai plant.

Exide Industries climbed after the Competition Commission of India gave the go-ahead to the battery-maker's proposal to fully acquire ING Vysya's Life Insurance Company.

Jet Airways dropped another 3.5 per cent after reports that Etihad has put a host of conditions to acquire a stake in the company.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia were trading mixed following a sharp drop on Thursday. The Korean Kospi gained, while the Shanghai Composite and the Hong Kong Hang Sang were trading lower. Markets are expected to be volatile ahead of the Union Budget, with hopes for a direction now pinned on Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

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