Indices

The Sensex was trading lower by 5 points, while the Nifty gained 6 points in early trade. Among the banking losers were ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Punjab National Bank and State Bank of India.

Trent was trading higher by almost 2 per cent, after reports that Tesco Plc became the first foreign supermarket chain to invest in India as the British retailer announced that its joint venture with Tata Group's Trent Ltd.

IDFC was trading higher after reports that the company was likely to issue fresh capital to bring down foreign holding in the company.

Real estate stocks continued to rally on hopes of tax sops for Real Estate Investment Trusts in the forthcoming budget. Oberoi, DLF and Sobha Developers were all trading higher.

Nifty losers in trade today were ITC, TCS, Sun Pharma and NMDC. Nifty stocks that saw maximum gains in trade were Power Grid, BPCL, Bhel, Coal India and Grasim.

In the mid cap space there were virtually no losers with most of the stocks seeing sharp gains. Steel Authority of India, Canara Bank and HPCL were stocks that saw gains in early trade.

Wockhardt Ltd which has seen some severe selling pressure in the last few days on US FDA worries gained ground and was trading more than 2 per cent higher.

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