Among the top losers in early trade were once again the banking stocks led by State Bank of India, which dropped almost 3% following a Moody's downgrade of the bank's unsecured debt and rupee deposits to Baa3 from Baa2.

Other banking stocks followed State Bank lower, notable losers being Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank.

Pharma shares once again found buyers in trade today with Lupin among the top Nifty gainers, while Ranbaxy also gained in trade.

Software stocks were trading flat with a slight positive bias, with Infosys among the gainers. Other Nifty gainers were ONGC, Hero Motor Corp, Cairn India and Tata Motors.

Shares of state owned Mahanagar Telephone (MTNL) surged following reports that BSNL and MTNL to sign pact for offering pan-India mobile services.

Realty stocks were up in trade, following a bout of short covering. Shares in Phoenix Mills jumped 4%, while DLF gained 2% in trade.

Mid Cap stocks were mostly trading higher with notable gainers from the space being Hindustan Zinc and United Phosphorus.

Meanwhile, most of the markets in Asia were down with the Hong Kong's Hang Sang, Indonesia's Jakarta Composite, Japanese Nikkei and the Singapore's Strait Times all lower in trade.

GoodReturns.in