Domestic stock markets started Friday's session on a choppy note swinging between gains and losses in a tight range amid weakness in Asian peers. The S&P BSE Sensex index moved in a range of 197.89 points, first touching 37,888.36 at the strongest level in early deals, and then climbing down to as low as 37,690.47. The NSE Nifty benchmark moved between 11,210.05 and 11,267.75, as against its previous close of 11,252.15. Gains in banking and automobile stocks were countered by losses in information technology and energy shares.

At 9:41 am, the Sensex traded 17.49 points - or 0.05 per cent - higher at 37,848.47 while the Nifty was flat at 11,252.20.

Top percentage gainers on the 50-scrip index at the time were Bharti Infratel, Zee Entertainment, Mahindra & Mahindra, Indiabulls Housing Finance and State Bank of India (SBI), trading between 1.14 per cent and 1.76 per cent higher. On the other hand, top laggards were Indian Oil, Vedanta, UPL, ONGC and Bharti Airtel, struggling with losses of between 0.96 per cent and 2.52 per cent.

Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and SBI contributed the most to the advances in Sensex, while Infosys, TCS and HDFC weighed the most.

Equities in other Asian markets opened a tad lower on Friday, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.15 per cent and Japan's Nikkei trading 0.3 per cent lower.

Overnight on Wall Street, US shares fell from record highs, with the S&P 500 losing 0.53 per cent, following a flurry of downbeat quarterly results from Ford Motor and other companies.

US stock futures were little changed in Asia.

The Sensex and Nifty had ended 0.04 per cent and 0.17 per cent lower on Thursday, suffering their longest stretch of losses since May 13.

(With inputs from Reuters)