After a sluggish start, the  stock market remained flat in the morning hours of trade. The Sensex was up 3.99 points at 18454.22 while the Nifty gained 1.50 points to 5554.75.

Bajaj Auto, Cipla, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel and M&M were the lead gainers in the Sensex. Investors were still buying sugar stocks after the government decided to decontrol sugar price last week. Balrampur Chini was up 2.3 percent while stocks like Shree Renuka, Bajaj Hindusthan gained around 1 percent.

Reliance Communication surged 4 percent on reports that the company will sell 80 percent stake in its subsidiary Reliance Globalcom to a consortium led by Batelco for around Rs 6000cr as part of a series of deals the group hopes to strike over the next 2-8 weeks.

TVS Motor (up 3.2 percent) was excited as in a press conference scheduled at 3 pm later today, the management is expected to finalise the alliance with BMW’s motorcycle division , BMW Motorrad.

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) was up 2.6 percent as Kapil Sibal has sought the intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to chalk out a revival strategy for the loss-making state-run telecom operators BSNL and MTNL. He suggested a group of ministers be formed to look into the issue and said that unless the government takes immediate measures to revive the companies, they will turn sick very shortly. Meanwhile, technology stocks looked weak ahead of the fourth quarter earnings. TCS and Wipro were the major losers of the day.

Sensex sluggish; mood subdued as Q4 earnings seen weak Benchmark indices were sluggish in early trade Monday, as the market braces for a lackluster or perhaps even nasty earnings season.