Among the early Nifty gainers in trade were HeroMotor Corp, Infosys Technologies, Tata Power, NTPC and ONGC.

Early Nifty losers included stocks like State Bank of India, Mahindra and Mahindra, Larsen and Toubro Jindal Steel, HDFC, Gail, HDFC Bank, Hindalco and Tata Motors.

Bank of India was trading higher after reports that the bank was making a preferential allotment to the government. The stock was up 1.41 per cent in early trade.

Punjab National Bank also gained after the bank received allotment money of Rs 1,247.99 crore from the Government of India.

Maruti Suzuki fell even after rallied reports that the company will invest in a factory to scale up production as early as next month.

P C Jeweller fell marginally after the sharp rally witnessed on Wednesday after reports that the company would be included in the BSE 500 index.

Realty stocks that rallied sharply on Wednesday saw some selling pressure with prominent losers from the space being DLF, Godrej Properties, HDIL, Oberoi Realty and Indiabulls.

Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers was trading higher ahead of the government's stake sale in the company.

Shares of HPCL was marginally up after the company said it will enter into a partnership with Shapoorji Pallonji group for an LNG Terminal

Meanwhile, markets in Asia were trading mixed with the Chinese Shanghai Composite and the Hong Kong's Hang Sang rallying, while the Korean kospi and Singapre's Strait Times were trading lower.

Markets are expected to move in tandem with global markets and would now watch for the RBI's credit policy later this month.

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