Among the early Nifty gainers were the oil marketing companies including BPCL, HPCL and ONGC after a hike in the prices of petrol and diesel.

Other stocks that gained in trade were Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, HUL, Hindalco, Ranbaxy Laboratories and Cipla.

Jet Airways fell sharply by 6 per cent after reports that a deal between Etihad and the company is likely to be revised and would take more time.

Gail was trading flat despite the company reporting a better than expected quarterly performance. Cairn India was higher after the company won an approval to drill exploration wells in the Rajasthan block that will increase output.

Central Bank of India jumped after reports that the company will get fresh infusion of capital. Nifty stocks that lost ground in early trade were Axis Bank, Asian Paints, Ambuja Cements, Infosys, HeroMotor Corp, Wipro and TCS.

PSU banking stocks that came in for selling on Friday saw some buying support with Andhra Bank, Allahabad Bank, Canara Bank, IOB, Oriental Bank, Punjab National Bank and IDBI bank.

Realty stocks that came in for selling pressure late last week also saw buying support with DB Realty, Anant Raj Industries, HDIL, Parsvnath and Sobha gaining ground.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia were mostly trading higher with the Chinese Composite, the Japanese Nikkei and the Singapore's Strait Times all trading higher.

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