The Sensex was trading lower by 58 points, while the Nifty shed 17 points in early trade. Among the top losers in trade today was Cipla, which saw selling pressure following a disappointing set of numbers. The stock was down 1.62 per cent in early trade.

Other prominent losers from the Nifty stocks were Siemens, Jindal Steel Dr Reddy's, TCS and Lupin. Shares of NTPC dropped 1.38 per cent ahead of the stake sale in the company by the government.

Among the early gainers in trade were HCL Tech, Jaiprakash Associates, Mahindra and Mahindra, Sun Pharma and Tata Motors.

IRB Infrastructure gained after the company reported a decent set of quarterly numbers. ACC was trading marginally lower ahead of its quarterly numbers to be unveiled today. IDFC and Jaiprakash Associates which had dropped sharply in the last few days recovered to trade in the green.

PSU banking stocks which had come in for severe selling pressure following poor results by Bank of Baroda, saw some buying interest at lower levels. Prominent gainers from the sector were Union Bank, ICBI Bank, Syndicate Bank and Punjab National Bank.

Realty stocks came in for some selling pressure with Indiabulls, Parsvnath, Oberoi , Anant Raj and Oberoi Realty all dropping in trade today.

The Oil and Gas sector which recently had seen stocks run-up from the sector saw some selling pressure with ONGC, BPCL, Cairn India and Reliance all falling in trade.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia were mostly trading lower with the Hong Kong's Hang Sang, the Japanese Nikkei, the Chinese Shanghai Composite and the Korean Kospi all lower in trade.

Indian markets are likely to take cues from global markets and would look to the Budget for further triggers.

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