Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra, Infosys, Wipro and Gail were among the early gainers in trade. Pharma stocks saw buying interest with Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy's and Sun Pharma among the early gainers.

Oil and gas stocks lost ground on sustained increase in global oil prices. ONGC, BPCL, HPCL and Indian Oil were all trading lower. In fact, ONGC is expected to declare its results later today.

PSU banking stocks which have dropped sharply following disappointing results by a few banks from the sector were trading mixed. IDBI, IOB and Oriental Bank dropped while Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank and Bank of Baroda gained.

Realty stocks were trading steady with Oberoi, Parsvnath, DLF, Unitech little changed over Friday's levels.

Sugar stocks were trading marginally higher after reports that sugar prices could increase by Rs 2. Cox and Kings which reported a decent set of financial performance was trading higher.

Nifty stocks that lost ground in trade were HeroMotor Corp, Tata Power, ITC, Bharti, Grasim and IDFC.

The metal index was lower after metals stocks like Bhushan Steel, Coal India, Sail and Hindustan Zinc saw selling.

The MCX stock was down despite the MCX SX beginning trade today. Cipla gained after reports that the pharma company has decided to put on hold its $220-million acquisition plan of the third-largest South African drugmaker Cipla Medpro due to valuation issues.

IVRCL stock jumped after reports that the infrastructure company is close to selling three of its road projects to Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd in an attempt to retire debt and replenish equity funds to help it take up new projects.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia were mostly closed for a holiday.

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