Indian benchmark equity indices, the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50, traded flat on Monday afternoon amid profit-booking in bluechips HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Tata Consutlancy Services and ICICI Bank, which weighed on indices. Trade sentiment remained cautiously optimistic over the US-China trade deal amid sustained foreign fund inflows.

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The BSE Sensex was down over 45 points to trade at 40,311 at 1.12 pm. The NSE Nifty50 was 6 points lower to trade at 11,889. Indices started on a positive note led by a surge in banking stocks after the Supreme Court last week cleared the path for steelmaker ArcelorMittal to take over bankrupt Essar Steel. The judgement comes as a big relief for banks which are saddled with bad debt worth $140 billion.

Broader market indices were mixed with the Nifty MidCap 100 index rising a little over half a percent. Nifty SmallCap 100 too rose 0.33 percent. Among sectoral gauges, bank, auto, financial service, FMCG, IT and private bank declined, while media, metal, pharma, PSU bank and realty shares advanced.

Among stocks, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, BPCL, UPL, Hindalco, Sun Pharma, SBI and Tata Motors gained by up to 4 percent. The laggards included Yes Bank, Britannia, Bajaj Auto, M&M, Nestle, Hero MotoCorp and HDFC Bank, which fell by up to 3.5 percent.

Shares of Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) rallied over 4 percent in early trade on Monday after reports that the government is aiming to sell their stake in the company by March 2020.

Vodafone Idea’s stock price surged as much as 20 percent after finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she doesn’t want the company to shut its operations and wants the sector to flourish.

The share price of Coffee Day Enterprises rose nearly 5 percent on Monday after CNBC-TV18 reported that nearly 500 Café Coffee Day (CCD) outlets across India have been shut down since April this year to counter falling profits.

Shares of Glenmark Pharma rose over 16 percent on Monday, extending gains from Friday after global brokerage CLSA upgraded the stock to 'buy' from 'sell' and raised target price to Rs 410 per share from Rs 350 earlier.

The Indian rupee appreciated by 19 paise to 71.59 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday tracking gains in domestic equity market and weakening of the American currency vis-a-vis other currencies overseas. On Friday, rupee had settled for the day at 71.78 against the US dollar.

At 1.23 pm, the home currency quoted at 71.75 against the greenback.

Asian shares ticked higher on Monday after Beijing surprised markets by trimming a key interest rate for the first time since 2015, stirring speculation that further stimulus was on the way for the world’s second-largest economy.

China’s central bank cut rates on seven-day reverse repurchase agreements by five basis points to 2.50%, a move that nudged the yuan higher while lowering bond yields.

Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.62 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1.31 percent. South Korea's Kospi traded flat in the red, while Japan's Nikkei gained almost half a percent.

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-with inputs from agencies