It was another day of flat openings for the markets, as year end considerations and festive holidays, saw limited action and lesser volatility.

The Sensex was trading higher by 33 points, while the Nifty gained 6 points in early trade. The metals pack continued to attract buyers with Hindalco, Tata Steel and Sterlite being among the early gainers.

Banking stocks were trading flattish with State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and ICICI Bank seeing little change over Monday's closings.

IT stocks shed gains of the previous two sessions with Wipro, TCS, Infosys and HCL all trading in the red.

Other index stocks that lost ground in trade were HDFC, HDFC Bank, ITC, Kotak Mahindra and Tata Power.

Among non index stocks Petronet LNG was trading firm after Qatar Petroleum expressed interest in buying a 5.2 per cent stake in Petronet LNG Ltd

Pantaloon Retail India Ltd was trading higher by one per cent after reports that the Competition Commission of India has given the green signal to the takeover of Future group's Pantaloon brand business by Aditya Birla Nuvo.

Pharma stocks were also in the limelight today with prominent gainers from the sector including Glenmark, Lupin Laboratories, Sun Pharma and Ranbaxy Laboratories.

Markets are expected to trade in a range through most of the day and would wait for European cues later in the day.

GoodReturns.in