Indian stock market opened positive on Monday with BSE Sensex up by nearly 170 points at 10.30 am IST. NSE Nifty was also trading stronger by 52 points, well above 5500 level. Most of the stocks were trading positive with banking stocks reversing the declining trend of past few trading sessions. Indian economy slumped further as per the data released on Friday evening but investors are not much concerned about that for today's session.

CNBC TV-18 has quoted some sources in finance ministry regarding government planning to cut down expenses to contain the fiscal deficit within its target. The government is most likely going to over the subsidy plan in tune of Rs 40,000 crore. The government increased price of petrol and diesel over weekend due to global oil price rise and INR decline. Under-recovery for diesel still remains at Rs 10.2 per litre.

In today's trade, major gainers included Ranbaxy Labs, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, PNB, NMDC, ITC, Lupin, Tata Steel and Maruti Suzuki. Among major losers were M&M, NTPC, Tata Motors, Tata Power, ACC, Ambuja Cements. However, most of the losing stocks were down only marginally. Market breadth was positive with majority of stocks trading in the green.

Indian market is expected to close positive today. Asian markets are heading towards a positive close with Hang Seng and Nikkei closing with gains over 1.25% each. Indian currency gained further ground against US dollar in today's trade. Indian currency has recovered smartly after RBI provided dollars to oil companies through special window. Also, there are reports that India would pay oil bills to Iran in Indian currency which will lead to decline in demand for US dollars by Indian oil importers.