Friday turned a choppy session for Indian markets owing to lack of direction.

Negative global signals kept the stock markets under check. All these reasons also weighed on the investor reactions.

While capital goods and pharma stocks were in demand; realty, metals and auto counters were down.

At 1:00 p. m., the 30-share-index BSE Sensex gained 42.15 points at 13778.69.

Meanwhile, the broad based Nifty index stood at 4199.65, down 11.25 points. The index touched an intra-day low of 4155.85 and high of 4236.35.

Mr. Avinash Gupta, head of equities at Mumbai-based Bonanza Capital, said, "It is likely that markets may witness some further correction and fall below 4,100 as the unprecedented global rally too has halted on the back of profit booking."

At the same time, BSE Midcap Index surged nearly 0.32% and BSE Smallcap Index was up 1.52%.

Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Capital Goods Index gained 1.84% and BSE Healthcare Index surged 1.39%.

In contrast, BSE Metal Index fell 1.32% and BSE Realty Index was down by 1.17%.

The top gainers' in the Sensex pack included Larsen & Toubro (2.72%), Reliance Indsutries (2.01%), HDFC (1.46%), Hindustan Unilever (1.22%) and ICICI Bank (1.17%).

Sterlite Industries (-4.60%), ONGC (-4.35%), ACC (-4.14%), Mahindra & Mahindra (-3.63%) and Tata Motors (-3.61%) remained the major Sensex losers.

European shares belled the day on a lower note led by losses in financial and oil segment.

Asian stocks dropped down as the rising yen hurt Japanese earnings outlooks and the US Federal Reserve projected a more mysterious downturn.

At 1:10 p. m., Nikkei shed 38.34 points, or 0.41%, to trade at 9,225.81, Hang Seng index dropped 222.59 points, or 1.29%, to trade at 16.976.90 and Shanghai Composite declined 13.02 points, or 0.50%, to trade at 2,597.60.