Among the early gainers in trade today were Axis Bank, Gail, Ambuja Cements, Bharti Airtel and Grasim.

Nifty stocks that lost ground in trade today were Coal India, Cairn India, BPCL and ITC. Banking stocks were trading mixed with Bank of Baroda, Indusind Bank, State Bank of India and Union Bank amongst the gainers, while ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank lost ground.

The CNX IT index was in the red with TCS, Infosys and HCL all trading in the negative. Auto stocks continued to have a good day on sustained buying support with Maruti, Ashok Leyland and Mahindra and Mahindra all up in early trade.

Bank of Baroda was up after the bank said it will raise Rs 1,550 crore by issuing preference shares to the government.

SpiceJet was up one per cent after the shareholders approved proposals to raise Rs 145 crore through issue of debentures and warrants, on preferential basis, to its promoter Kalanithi Maran.

Pharma shares continued to be in the limelight with Cadila, Divis Labs, Sun Pharma and Piramal Healthcare all rallying in trade.

Markets are expected to be volatile ahead of the F&O expiry for December.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia were mostly trading higher despite fears of the impending fiscal cliff in the US.

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