Nifty stocks that lost ground in trade were Hindustan Unilever, Grasim, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, ONGC and Ultratech Cement.

MMTC saw selling pressure after reports that the Department of Disinvestment (DoD) is planning to launch this month or early May the 9.33 per cent stake sale in MMTC, which could fetch around Rs 300 crore to the exchequer.

Reliance Infrastructure Ltd gained after the company has agreed to rework the power tariff with the Goa government, following the latter's decision to stop power purchase due to high costs.

Tata Steel jumped on reports the company is considering selling some of its UK assets as a weakening economy erodes demand leaving factories underutilised, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

Realty stocks which were battered in the past few trading sessions were trading higher led by gains in Unitech, DLF and HDIL.

Banking stocks which have been hammered in the last few trading sessions, saw buying emerge at lower levels. Among the prominent gainers from the space were HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank.

IT stocks which saw some heavy selling pressure on Monday and Tuesday saw buying support today. Among the gainers from the space were Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Mindtree, Oracle and Vakrangee.

The Nifty mid cap was also trading higher by 0.50 per cent led by gains in IFCI, HDIL and Aditya Birla Nouvo.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia were trading higher led by gains in the Korean Kopsi and the Japanese Nikkei. However, the Shanghai Composite slipped after poor trade data.

GoodReturns.in