The market took a breather on last day of the week as benchmark indices closed in the red on Friday after rallying sharply in the previous session.

Frontline indices opened on a positive note but wiped out those opening gains in the first hour of trade itself and traded in a tight range of 30 points on the Nifty for rest of the day.

ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and ITC pushed the market lower but the buying in Reliance Industries, Infosys and HDFC twins capped losses.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 6.78 points to close at 36,541.63.

The 50-share NSE Nifty managed to hold 11,000-mark despite volatility , closing 4.30 points lower at 11,018.90.

The index still held its previous day's intraday low, which indicated that bulls have not given up yet and the market may resume its upward journey soon to hit earlier record highs, experts said.

"This pause shall eventually pave the way for a fresh breakout which shall initially lead to the test of life time highs present around 11,171 levels," Mazhar Mohammad, Chief Strategist – Technical Research & Trading Advisory, Chartviewindia.in told Moneycontrol.

He said hence, positional traders are advised to buy the dips and retain positive stance as long as Nifty50 sustains above 10,900 levels on closing basis and look for bigger targets over a period of time.

For the week, the Sensex gained 2.5 percent and the Nifty rallied 2.3 percent.

The broader markets underperformed frontliners with the Nifty Midcap index falling over a percent on weak breadth. About three shares declined for every share rising on the NSE.