Indian shares opened up on Monday tracking steady Asian markets, however, concerns loomed over US fiscal cliff resolution to avert automatic spending cuts and tax increases in next year.
The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex index opened up 36 points at 19,278 while the National Stock Exchange's Nifty-50 index gained 21 points and opened at 5,869.
Global risk appetite remained frail on concerns over US growth. US lawmakers tried to rescue stalled talks on Friday but there was little headway ahead of Christmas holidays.
US stocks advanced on Friday amid optimism over US 'fiscal cliff' resolution. The S&P 500 climbed 0.6 percent to close at 1,443.69 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 59.75 points, or 0.5 percent, to 13,311.72.
In Asia, China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.6% to 2,165, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.15% to 22,540, Singapore's Straits Times rose 0.03% to 3,164. Financial markets in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines are closed on Monday for public holiday.
The MSCI Asia Pacific index outside Japan rose 0.15% to 889.34
Back home, auto, metal, real-esate, power, fast moving consumer goods, banks indexes leading the gain while oil and gas declined on BSE.
Among key Sensex stocks, GAIL gained 1%, Hero MotocCorp, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra rose nearlyl 1%, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro rose 0.20.-0.40% while Reliance Industries fell 0.2% and Sun Pharma declined 0.3%on BSE.
The BSE mid-cap and small-cap gained 0.3-0.4%.
The overall breadth is positive as 507 stocks advanced while 129 stocks declined on the BSE.
