Indian equities dropped in early trade on Friday erasing earlier gains. BSE Midcap and Smallcap index rose 0.15% and 0.73% respectively. Metal, banking and energy stocks dropped while IT and auto stocks gained.

The rupee depreciated 17 paise to 74.75 against the US dollar in opening trade on Friday tracking weakness in other Asian currencies.

The 30-share benchmark index, BSE Sensex opened flat with a decline of 2.82 points or 0.01% at 49,743.39, while the broad based NSE Nifty began flat with a gain of 8.85 points or 0.06%, at 14,882.65.

At 11.16 a.m., the Sensex was trading down 83.68 points or 0.17% at 49,662.53 with 17 components falling.  Meanwhile, the Nifty was trading lower by 27.45 points or 0.18% at 14,846.35 with 34 components falling.  

Reliance Industries  contributed fall of 32.58 points in the Sensex.  It was followed by HDFC Bank  (32.53 points), ICICI Bank  (26.11 points), Larsen & Toubro  (14.49 points) and NTPC  (14.01 points).

However, Tata Motors  contributed rise of 43.34 points in the Sensex.  It was followed by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries  (36.51 points), ITC  (35.03 points), Hindustan Unilever  (33.75 points) and State Bank Of India (22.23 points).

Major gainers in the 30-share index were Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (3.14%), Hindustan Unilever  (2.11%), State Bank Of India (1.18%), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation  (0.87%),  and HCL Technologies  (0.79%).

On the other hand, Bajaj Finance  (1.97%), NTPC  (1.52%), Asian Paints  (1.04%), HDFC Bank  (0.83%),  and Indusind Bank  (0.80%) were the major losers in the Sensex.Market breadth was positive with 1,553 advances against 1,109 declines.