The Sensex was up 100 points, while the Nifty gained 27 points in early trade. Among the gainers in trade today were oil exploration and oil marketing companies following reports that the government was planning to raise the prices of diesel.

Oil stocks that gained included ONGC, BPCL, HPCL, Oil India and Indian Oil. Telecom stocks like Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular were trading soft following reports that some telecom companies are likely to take the government to court after the telecom department issued notices to all operators this week directing them to pay a one-time on the existing airwaves they hold.

IT stocks were trading firm ahead of results to be declared by Infosys on Friday. Wipro, HCL and Infosys were all trading higher today, while TCS dropped marginally.

Realty stocks which have been rallying since the last few weeks also saw buyers, with the CNX Realty index trading in the positive. Shares from like Anant Raj, DB Realty, HDIL, Unitech and DLF were all showing gains.

Among the stocks that witnessed maximum gains were the high beta metal names with large players like Tata Steel, Hindalco Industries, JSW Steel all trading with gains.

Engineers India was up ahead of the government's decision on a stake sale in the company.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia were trading sharply higher with the Japanese Nikkei, the Korean Kospi and the Hong Kong's Hang Sang trading with gains.

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