Among the early losers in trade were those from the banking space with ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank and Canara Bank among the losers.

Software stocks continued to show resilience in a falling market with Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Tech, both trading flat. Infosys, however, rallied after the company announced some management changes at the senior level.

Auto stocks which saw some heavy selling pressure on Friday continued to languish with notable losers being Mahindra and Mahindra, Hero Motor Corp and Bajaj Auto.

Heavyweights in the Sensex, including Larsen and Toubro, Reliance and ITC continued to lead declines. Nifty gainers in early trade were ONGC, Cipla, Tata Motors and Jindal Steel.

Mid cap stocks which have been rallying heavily in the last few trading sessions continue to exhibit strength with the mid cap index trading marginally higher. Notable gainers from the mid cap space were Hexaware, Havells India and Siemens.

In the realty space Sobha Developers saw selling pressure after the company's sales volume for the period ending Dec 31, 2013 saw a decline.

However, Anant Raj and Godrej Properties saw some buying interest at lower levels.

Meanwhile, markets across Asia were trading weak led by losses in the Chinese Shanghai Composite and the Hong Kong's Hang Sang.

GoodReturns.in