The frontline Indian equity benchmarks are trading with a negative bias in late morning trade, as investors continue to be cautious ahead of important events such as corporate earnings, IIP data, inflation report, monsoon's progress and the month-end RBI policy meeting. The NSE Nifty has dipped below the 5,300 mark while the BSE Sensex is trading under the 17,500 mark. The market breadth is weak as the broader indices too are under some pressure today after out-performing the Large-Cap shares in the past few sessions.

At 11:27 am (IST), the BSE Sensex was at 17,472, down 65 points over the previous close. It had earlier touched a day’s high of 17,456 and aday’s low of 17,425.It opened at 17,546.

NSE Nifty was quoting at 5,297, down 29 points over the previous close.

Coal India, HDFC, HUL, ITC are among the gainers in Sensex and Nifty.

Infosys, Wipro, Tata Power, L&T, Sterlite Inds, Jindal Steel, NTPC, Tata Steel, Sun Pharma,ONGC are among the losers in Sensex and Nifty.

The BSE Small-Cap index and BSE Mid-Cap index was trading down 0.28% and 0.39%.

Auto, FMCG indices were the leading gainers.

Realty, Power, PSU, HC,Oil and Gas, Consumer Durables, Auto,Metal, PSU, Teck, IT, Capital Goods, Bankex and Metal indices indices are the losers.

Metals, Realty, IT, Teck and Capital Goods indices are the biggest laggards followed by Power, Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas indices. FMCG is the sole gainer among the sectoral plays on the BSE and NSE. Select stocks in Auto and Pharma indices have managed to buck the negative trend. The remaining sectoral indices are marginally lower.

 Investors fear that the latest policy easing by the world's leading central banks won't be enough to bolster the fragile global economy. Cautious comments from the ECB president Mario Draghi about the precarious state of the eurozone economy and jitters ahead of the US monthly jobs report on Friday.

The European Central Bank (ECB) and the People’s Bank of China cut their benchmark borrowing costs yesterday, while the Bank of England (BOE) expanded the size of its asset-purchase program.

“Downside risks to the euro-area economic outlook have materialized,” ECB President Mario Draghi said yesterday after cutting the main refinancing rate by a quarter-percentage point to a record low of 0.75% and reducing interest on overnight deposits to zero.

“Economic growth in the euro area continues to remain weak with heightened uncertainty,” he said, adding that the rate cuts may have only a muted effect.

A downbeat report on the US services sector activity along with disappointing retail sales added to the ongoing worries about global economic growth.

The reports come ahead of Friday’s closely watched jobs report from the Labor Department. Economists expect nonfarm payrolls to increase by 100,000 in June compared with 69,000 in May.

Asian stock indices are trading mostly lower, as lingering worries about the deteriorating global economic backdrop are countering the monetary easing announced by the European Central Bank (ECB), the Bank of England (BOE) and China's central bank.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was down 0.4% at 11:27 a.m. in Tokyo. About four stocks fell for every three that rose on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index, which is still 1.1% higher this week.

The euro is headed for its biggest weekly decline in more than six months amid signs that the region’s debt crisis is curtailing economic growth. The euro is poised for a 2.3% drop this week, the sharpest decline since the five-days ended Dec. 16.

The 17-nation currency held a two-day fall against the yen.

Stocks in Spain and Italy bore the brunt of selling yesterday amid fears that the ECB will be reluctant to extend more help to these debt-stricken nations.

Spain’s IBEX 35 index sank 3% to 6,954.20.

The yield on Spain’s 10-year government bond jumped 39 basis points to 6.74%, according to reports.

Italy's FTSE MIB index was down 2% at 14,088.74.

Sometimes markets behave in a bizarre fashion, confounding most pundits. The reaction of world equity markets to monetary easing by three top central banks falls in this category. Major global stock indices have lost ground despite the monetary stimulus unleashed by central banks in China, Europe and the UK to contain the global economic mess.

India’s frontline indices were cautious at start, tracking the weak global cues. The Rupee remains under pressure as overseas investors are not convinced about ongoing attempts to shore up growth. Foreign investors are perhaps waiting for more decisive action, which is unlikely this month due to the looming Presidential election.

As always, the month-end RBI policy meeting will be important in the wake of fresh policy easing done by other central banks. Before that, we will have to contend with data on industrial production and WPI inflation. Progress of monsoon and corporate earnings are among the other key variables.

Friday’s monthly jobs data out of the US will be closely tracked to gauge the state of the world’s largest economy. The US employment report due on Friday will likely show more jobs added than in April or May, but the pace will still be sluggish, according to majority of the economists.

Trend in FII flows: The FIIs were net buyers of Rs 4.29bn in the cash segment on Thursday while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net sellers of Rs 2.03bn, as per the provisional figures released by the NSE.

The FIIs were net sellers of Rs 1.09bn in the F&O segment on Thursday, according to the provisional NSE data.

The foreign funds were net buyers of Rs 3bn in the cash segment on Wednesday while the Mutual Funds were net sellers at Rs 200mn, according to the SEBI figures.

Global Data Watch today: Japan leading economic index, UK producer price index, Germany industrial production, US non-farm payrolls and US unemployment rate.