Among the stocks that rallied in early trade from the Nifty stocks were Bajaj Auto, Siemens, Tata Power and Jaiprakash Associates.

Metal stocks which have been rallying in trade over the last few sessions saw buying interest with Hindalco, Nalco, Sesa Goa and Sterlite Industries amongst the gainers.

Banking stocks were also up in early trade with State Bank of India, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and Union Bank gaining. However, HDFC bank and Bank of Baroda were trading with losses.

NMDC was trading marginally higher after tit inked a deal with RINL and Indian Railways to set up rail infrastructure.

Cairn India was up more than one per cent after reports that the oil ministry has decided to allow the company to further explore Rajasthan oil fields.

Nifty stocks that lost ground in trade today were Reliance Industries, Maruti Suzuki and ONGC. IT stocks continued to gain on buying interest at lower levels with TCS, Wipro and Infosys recording smart gains.

FMCG stocks ITC and Hindustan Unilever were marginally lower in trade. Shares of pharma company FDC was up more than 10% after reports that the Chandavarkar family plans to sell their 67% stake in Pharma company.

Shares of Lanco Infratech was up more than 7% after reports that the company put its Udupi plant on the block and the company was in talks with Adani Power and JSW Energy.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia were up with the Hong Kong's Hang Sang, Taiwanese Taiwan Weighted, Shanghai Composite all trading with marginal gains.

Markets will be closed on Tuesday due to Christmas holidays.

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