Among the early gainers in trade were Bharat Heavy Electricals and IDFC.

Hindustan Unilever which declared marginally weaker than expected volumes was down 1.5 per cent in trade.

Among the top mid cap gainers was IFCI, which rallied another 2 per cent in trade today ahead of its Q4 numbers to be declared later. The stock was up 4 per cent on Monday.

Idea Cellular which reported better than expected numbers was up 2 per cent. Top Nifty losers in trade apart from HUL were Tata Steel, Larsen and Bajaj Auto.

The Bank Nifty was trading with marginal losses as private sector banking stocks like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Yes Bank were trading with losses. However, the highly undervalued PSU banking stocks continued to find buyers with the likes of Canara Bank and and Indian Bank among the gainers. Indian Overseas Bank which is likely to declare results today was trading with gains.

IT stocks clearly bucked the falling trend with Infoys, TCS and Wipro all trading with gains.

Realty stocks were having a mixed day with Oberoi Realty higher, while Indiabulls and Sobha Developers dropped.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia were higher led by gains in the Hong Kong's Hang Sang and the Shanghai Composite.

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