Among the early gainers in trade were the banking stocks led by more then 2 per cent gains in ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and Union Bank.

Other banking stocks that gained ground were Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank and Punjab National Bank. Housing Finance Company, HDFC continued to rally for a third straight day and was up more then 2 per cent in early trade.

Other Nifty stocks that gained were Coal India, Reliance Infra, IDFC and Hindustan Unilever. Software stocks were trading flat after the spectacular rally of the last few days.

Heavyweights, ITC and Reliance were marginally up in early trade. Auto stocks came in for some heavy selling pressure as many companies in the sector reported disappointing volumes for August.

Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra were both down more then 2 per cent in trade. Other Nifty losers included ACC and Ambuja Cement.

The rally in metal stocks continued following upbeat data from China. Metal stocks that gained in early trade were Jindal Steel, Tata Steel and JSW Steel.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia were trading mostly higher led by gains in the Japanese Nikkei and the Hong Kong's Hang Sang.

GoodReturns.in