The Sensex was trading higher by 73 points, while the Nifty gained 17 points at 9.30 am IST.

Among the gainers from the index stocks were Bank of Baroda, Lupin Laboratories, Bharti Airtel and Cairn India. Among the losers in trade were ONGC, BPCL, Ambuja Cements and GAIL.

Shares of National Aluminium Company were down after the company stopped production at its Panchpatmali North-Central block bauxite mines after its lease deed for the area expired.

Heavyweight, Reliance Industries continued to trade lower despite the fact that the oil & gas major said it has found very large gas reserves that need a price of more than $10 per million British thermal unit to be developed and produced.

United Spirits was trading flat after reports that Mallya may put Whyte & Mackay on the block to help the Diageo deal.

Software stocks were trading marginally higher in trade with Infosys, TCS and HCL amongst the gainers.

Banking stocks too were amongst the gainers with HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and State Bank of India up in trade.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia were mostly trading higher with the Japanese Nikkei, the Korean Kospi and Taiwan Weighted all up.

GoodReturns.in