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Markets continued to trade in a narrow range with defensive shares leading the gains while infrastucture stocks remained firm after the government approved ordinance to ease land acquisition.
At 10:45AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 2 points at 27,398 and the 50-share was up 2 points at 8,249.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in Indian equities worth Rs 204.22 crore on Monday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
The Indian rupee was trading lower at Rs 63.74 to the US dollar. On Monday, the Indian currency ended at 13-month closing low of 63.67 against the greenback, following sustained dollar demand from importers.
BSE Consumer Goods index was the top sectoral gainer up 1.3% followed by Capital Goods, FMCG and Healthcare indices.
Infrastructure major L&T was up 1% after the government ordinance to ease land acquisition. BHEL was up 0.7%. FMCG shares witnessed buying at lower levels with HUL and ITC up 0.2-1% each. In the pharma pack, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's Labs and Cipla were up 0.6-1% each.
Meanwhile, IT shares extended gains on the back of upbeat US economic data and encouraging guidance from Accenture. TCS, Infosys and Wipro were up 0.4-0.6% each.
Private banks witnessed profit taking. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank were down 0.3-0.7% each.
Reliance Industries was down 1.6%. On Monday, the company said it has planned turnaround at its Nagothane manufacturing site. The cracker and some of the downstream units will be shut for approximately four weeks, starting around mid-January 2015. ONGC was down 0.8%.
Metal shares which had gained on Monday on hopes of ordinance for mines sector reforms witnessed profit taking. Sesa Sterlite was down 1.5%, Tata Steel eased 0.7% and Hindalco fell 1%.
Among other infrastructure stocks, IRB Infrastructure, NCC, NBCC and Lanco Infratech were up 2-5% each.
Jindal Stainless has surged around 3% after the company said on Monday that it would de-merge its ferro-alloys, coke oven and stainless steel businesses into three different entities via the slump sale route in a bid to reduce its mounting debt and to ensure better management of its business verticals.
Godrej Properties has gained 5% on being appointed as development manager for a new project in Vikhroli, Mumbai and acquiring the shares of Godrej Premium Builders.
Blue Star were up nearly 4% after the company has agreed to collaborate with Eureka Forbes to launch water coolers with in-built purification. The partners are eyeing around Rs 150-200 crore from this collaboration.
IDBI Bank has gained around 2% after receiving approval from its Board of Directors to divest its stake in Credit Analysis & Research (CARE).
Shares of Suven Life were up 4% after the company said it has secured three product patents in Eurasia, Japan and Mexico.
In the broader market, BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.4% each.
Market breadth was positive with 1,152 gainers and 959 losers on the BSE.
