Mumbai, March 8 (IANS); Amid weak global cues, the Indian equity indices ended with marginal losses on Friday after trading in a range for a major part of the session.

Sensex and Nifty ended in the red after four consecutive sessions of gains following weakness in the global markets owing to the slashing of growth forecast by the European Central Bank (ECB) and weak export data from China.

The S&P BSE Sensex closed 53.99 points or 0.15 per cent lower at 36,671.43 while the Nifty ended at 11,035.40 down 22.80 points lower at 0.21 per cent.

"The momentum in domestic market was capped today due to the renewed concern in global economy. Moderation in GDP growth by ECB and weak export data from China impacted the global sentiment," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

"But Indian rupee strengthened supported by FIIs liquidity and benign oil prices, portraying the positive undercurrent in the domestic market."

Deepak Jasani of HDFC Securities said that NTPC and ICICI PRu Life were notable gainers while Wipro post a block deal declined close to 4 per cent.

Tata Motors, following the poor JLR global sales data for February released on Thursday, closed 4 per cent lower while the metal stocks weakened too, he added.

The top gainers on the BSE were NTPC, which jumped over 4 per cent, followed by Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finance, Sun Pharma and ITC.

Tata Motors declined close by 4 per cent followed by Tata Motors(DVR), HCL Tech, Tata Steel and Vedanta.