Companies such as Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Adani Ports, GAIL, among others were major losers on the stock exchanges.
The BSE benchmark Sensex was trading lower by over 100 points in early afternoon trade amid profit-booking in telecom, metal, healthcare, energy, auto, IT and oil and gas sectors on the back of lower Asian cues.
However, buying was seen in realty, capital goods, FMCG, power and industrial segments along with shares of midcap and smallcap companies.
Meanwhile, the growth in eight core sectors expanded to a 15-month high of 5.7% in February due to sharp pick-up in natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, cement and electricity generation.
At 1238 hours, the Sensex was trading down 168.45 points higher than its earlier level or 0.66% to 25,173.41 on the stock exchange. At 1100 hours, the index was trading down at 61.30 points or 0.24% to 25,280.56 on the exchange.
At 1243 hours, the NSE's Nifty too was trading down 53.25 points or 0.69% to 7,685.15 on the stock exchange.
Major losers were Bharti Airtel (2.91%), ONGC (1.82%), Adani Ports (1.70%), GAIL (1.60%), Lupin (1.59%), TCS (1.59%) and Tata Steel (1.56%).
Notable gainers include BHEL (4.62%), L&T (1.83%), ITC (1.65%), Wipro (1.07%) and CIPLA (0.69%).
Meanwhile, foreign funds (FPP and FIIs) continued their buying spree as they bought shares worth Rs 4,056.62 crore on Thursday, as per the provisional data of stock exchanges.
Overseas, Asian markets tumbled on Friday as investors began the new quarter with a cautious mood, with Japanese equities leading losses amid a slump in corporate sentiment.
Metals rose after a gauge of Chinese manufacturing expanded for the first time since July.
The US stocks closed lower on Thursday, but still had one of their best months since October as the market sentiment stabilised on a more dovish Federal Reserve.
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