At 9.30 AM, the Sensex is up 50 points at 26,061 and the Nifty is up 9 points at 7,757.

The move comes despite the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deciding to hold interest rates in the past four policy reviews, the last one being in September.

A notice under the Sarfaesi (Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest) Act has been issued against the borrower for having defaulted in meeting its repayment obligations and the bank is taking suitable action in this regard, the private lender said in a statement.

In its filing to BSE, Bank of Baroda said that in a meeting held on 27 September, the board had considered and given its in-principle approval to the bank for the sub-division of one existing equity share of face value of Rs.10 each fully paid up into five equity shares of face value of Rs.2 each fully paid up.

In line with weak Asian cues, the benchmark indices started on a flat note with a negative bias. The one weighing on the indices were ICICI Bank, L&T, ITC and ONGC in opening deals.

SBI signed an agreement with China Exim Bank for a Line of Credit of $ 1.8 billion for imports of raw material, energy, equipment, mechanical and electronic products, among others from China.

“We have already sent a notice to KFA (to declare it as a wilful defaulter). There is a mandatory time that needs to be given to them to respond and that time is currently on,” said Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairperson of SBI.

This comes after state-owned United Bank declared Mallya and three directors of Kingfisher Airlines as willful defaulters on Monday.

Maruti Suzuki's manufacturing will be contracted to the plant in a practice that some experts say is unusual for the industry. The move has been opposed by some shareholders who believe it will undermine the Indian unit and divert income to the parent.

The stock is the largest gainer among 30-share index S&P BSE Sensex at 1034 hours.