Key benchmarks traded in a narrow range with modest gains in mid-morning trade. The firmness was supported by strength in pharmaceutical shares. The Nifty struggled to touch the 11,150 level. At 11:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 296 points or 0.79% at 37,646.33. The Nifty 50 index was up 80.5 points or 0.73% at 11,128.3.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.61%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.65%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1202 shares rose and 833 shares fell. A total of 116 shares were unchanged.

Automotive major Mahindra & Mahindra announced that it has inaugurated its 1st automotive assembly plant in Sri Lanka. The assembly plant commenced its production with its first product, KUV 100. The company has extended its global footprint by establishing a plant in Welipenna, near Colombo, Sri Lanka. The plant established is in association with Ideal Motors of Sri Lanka. The stock was trading 0.84% higher at Rs 532.

Pharma stocks advanced. Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 2.8%), Lupin (up 2.66%),Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 2.06%), Divi's Laboratories (up 1.83%), Piramal Enterprises (up 1.48%), Cipla (up 1.36%), Alkem Laboratories (up 1.04%), Cadila Healthcare (up 0.46%) and Aurobindo Pharma (up 0.38%) edged higher.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries was up 3.35% to Rs 428.65 after the company announced that one of its wholly owned subsidiaries has been granted an exclusive license to a subsidiary of China Medical System Holdings (CMS) to develop and commercialize seven generic products in Mainland China. The collaboration with CMS now covers eight generic products. The total addressable market size for all these eight products is about $1 billion (as per recent IQVIA data) in Mainland China. The initial term of the agreement shall be 20 years from the first commercial sale of the respective products in Mainland China and may be extended for additional three years' as per mutual agreement of the two parties.

Overseas, Asian stocks were trading higher on Monday as hopes of more stimulus from central banks around the world and steps being taken by major economies such as Germany and China soothed investors' fears of a sharp global economic slump.

US stocks rebounded on Friday as news of potential German economic stimulus brought buyers back to the equities market.