Among the early gainers in trade were Bhel, Bharti Airtel, Larsen and Toubro and Mahindra and Mahindra. ONGC was up almost 2 per cent after reports that the company has inked an agreement with Turkish Petroleum firm TPAO for jointly bidding for oil assets in other countries.

Bank of India was trading higher on reports that the company has sought Rs 2000 crores from the government to meet capital requirements.

Software stocks continue to be weak in trade with Infosys, TCS and Wipro among the losers. Other Nifty stocks that lost ground in trade were Bajaj Auto, HDFC and Hindustan Unilever.

Mid cap stocks saw some buying interest with notable gainers from the space being Aurobindo Pharma, Havells India, HPCL, Jain Irrigation and Power Finance.

Shares in Gammon Infrastructure was locked at the upper end of the circuit filter after reports that the company has received approval from its shareholders to raise Rs.500 crore through a qualified institutional placement (QIP).
Banking stocks continued to rule firm in early trade with notable winners being IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank and ICICI Bank.

Meanwhile, markets across Asia were trading firm with the Hong Kong's Hang and the Shanghai Composite trading higher on strong Chinese PMI data.

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