The Sensex was up by 50 points, while the Nifty gained 13 points at 9.30 am IST. Among the gainers in trade today were Lupin Laboratories, ONGC, Asian Paints, ICICI Bank and Jindal Steel.

Among the index losers in trade today were BPCL, Cipla, Ambuja Cements, Grasim and Punjab National Bank.

Shares of Jet Airways surged more than 5% following reports that Naresh Goyal may sell some stake to Etihad Airlines.

Hindustan Copper which sank 20% on Friday following the government's decision to divest stake, was down another 20%.

Banking stocks were largely trading firm with ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and State Bank of India lending support to the indices. Heavyweight Reliance Industries was also trading higher at Rs 778.

FMCG stocks like Hindustan Lever and ITC were both trading with gains.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia were trading mixed with the Hong Kong's Hang Sang and the Chinese Shanghai Composite trading lower, while the Japanese Nikkei, the Korean Kospi and Singapore's Strait Times gained.

Markets are expected to be volatile ahead of futures expiry on Thursday and a truncated trading week, due to holiday for Guru Nanak Jayanthi.

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