Equity benchmarks opened marginally lower on profit booking after rallying consistently in previous nine sesssions. The Sensex declined 23.57 points to 27116.37 and the Nifty slipped 12.40 points to 8102.20.About 540 shares have advanced, 459 shares declined, and 39 shares are unchanged.

United Spirits gained a percent despite posting huge loss of Rs 4,489 crore in the year ended March 2014 on consolidated basis, increased by 44.4 times compared to a loss of Rs 101.2 crore in previous year, dented by exceptional loss of Rs 3,236 crore related to provision. Cipla surged 2.6 percent post annual general meeting. Coal India, Sun Pharma, TCS, Wipro, NMDC and Coal India gained 0.6-1.3 percent.

The Indian rupee opened flat at 60.46 per dollar versus 60.48. The euro held on to modest gains against the dollar, having pulled up from one-year lows as investors booked some profits ahead of the European Central Bank policy review. The dollar index comes off a 14-month peak.

Mohan Shenoi of Kotak Mahindra Bank said, “The currency sharemarket are expected to be rangebound ahead of the BoE and ECB rate setting meetings today evening and US payroll data tomorrow. Markets are also keenly watching geopolitical developments. Rupee is expected to trade in a range of 60.35-60.65/dollar today.”Ahead of the ECB meet, European shares ended the day firmly in the green, amid hopes that Ukraine and Russia were nearing a ceasefire agreement.