Mumbai, Oct 28 (IANS): Negative global cues subdued the Indian equity markets during the early morning trade session on Friday.

The wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was flat -- marginally down by 0.20 points to 8,615.05 points.

The barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 27,983.14 points, traded at 27,872.67 points (at 9.50 a.m.) -- down 43.23 points or 0.15 per cent from the previous close at 27,915.90 points.

The Sensex has so far touched a high of 27,985.99 points and a low of 27,789.84 points during the intra-day trade.

In contrast, the BSE market breadth was firmly in favour of the bulls -- with 1,226 advances and 606 declines.

On Thursday, the equity markets closed flat, even as short covering, along with bargain hunting, helped the key indices to pare initial losses.

The recovery was triggered during the last half an hour of Thursday's trade with a bounce-back in European indices after latest macro-data showed that United Kingdom's GDP grew at 0.5 per cent in the third quarter.

However, earlier cues like negative global cues, lower crude oil prices and disappointing quarterly earning results dragged the key indices lower.

The barometer index had declined by 79.39 points or 0.29 per cent to 27,915.90 points, while the NSE Nifty closed unchanged at 8,615.25 points.