The Sensex was lower by 7 points, while the Nifty was trading lower by 4 points at 5700. Index stocks that gained in early trade apart from Cipla were HDFC, Jindal Steel and ONGC.

Shares from Nifty companies that lost ground were Reliance Industries, Hindalco and Tata Steel. Shares of Maruti Suzuki was amongst the worst performer from the Nifty stocks after the workers from the Manesar plant said that they were planning a hunger strike and other peaceful protests to force the management to take back the 548 employees sacked after this year's July's violence.

Shares of Amar Raja Batteries soared 9% after the company's net profit surged more than 35%. Shares of Crompton Graves recovered partially following a sharp drop of more than 8% witnessed in the share price on Monday.

Banking shares were subdued with most of the PSU banks dropping following a poor set of results from Allahabad bank and Vijaya Bank reported on Monday. Canara Bank was down more than 1.5% ahead of its results to be declared later today.

Shares of software companies were trading higher, following a sharp depreciation in the rupee in the last few days. Infosys, TCS and Wipro were all trading with gains.

FMCG stocks like ITC and Hindustan Unilever were trading unchanged over Monday's close.

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