The Sensex was trading with gains of 64 points, while the Nifty rallied 19 points in early trade. Among the early gainers was Tata Consultancy Services which was trading higher by one per cent after the company announced a deal with Microsoft Business Solutions.

State owned iron ore company, NMDC was trading flat after the company did not announce any hike for iron ore prices for the month of March.

Top Nifty gainers in trade were Tata Steel, IDFC, Grasim and Ambuja Cements. Bharat Heavy Electricals was trading higher after Life Insurance Corporation picked a 4.66 per cent stake in the company through an open market transaction.

Banking stocks continued to drift higher with notable gainers being Canara Bank and Union Bank. Nifty stocks that lost ground in trade were Mahindra and Mahindra, Hero Motor Corp, HDFC, Ambuja Cements and Cairn India.

Mid cap stocks in line with the broad markets continued to have a good session in trade with notable gainers being Biocon, Adani Power, Hexaware and Tata Chemicals.

Astra Zeneca Pharma was down 5 per cent ahead of its board meeting to decide the delisting price.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia were trading with substantial gains with the Japanese Nikkei rallying 1.6 per cent, while the Taiwan Weighted was up more than 1 per cent. The Shanghai Composite was however trading with marginal losses.

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