The Sensex and the Nifty opened the day higher with the Sensex gaining 81 points, while the Nifty rallied 20 points in trade.

Shares in tractor to passenger car marker, Mahindra and Mahindra fell after the company reported a weaker than expected sales number for April. The stock was down 2 per cent.

MCX India's stock was up more than 4 per cent after reports that its MD and CEO Manoj Vaish had resigned. Nifty stocks that gained ground in trade were HDFC, Dr Reddy's Labs, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank.

Hero Motor Corp was up more than one per cent after its April results were better than expected. Maruti Suzuki, Larsen and Toubro and Wipro were Nifty stocks that lost ground in trade.

Mid cap stocks which were hammered on Wednesday recovered some ground with IFCI, Reliance Communications and Voltas among the gainers.

India's largest real estate player, DLF, which has been falling once again after more revelation on Robert Vadra's land deals, was marginally up in trade.

Other real estate stocks which had collapsed in trade on Wednesday also recovered ground. Unitech, HDIL and Indiabulls Real Estate were all trading with gains.

IT stocks were having a mixed session in trade with Infosys and TCS gaining ground, while Wipro and HCL Tech dropped in trade.

Meanwhile, Asian markets were trading with gains with the Hong Kong's Hang Sang, the Chinese Shanghai Composite and the Indonesian Jakarta Composite were all higher.

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