Indian stocks consolidated with an upward bias on Tuesday as they took cues from modest gains on Wall Street and a mild uptick across Asia. Stocks trade near 5-month highs and just a shade below the previous record as both local and overseas liquidity washes Dalal Street's shores.

Telecom stocks hogged the limelight in early deals as major developments continued to happen in the deal-making sector:

Tata Teleservices surged 6 per cent to 7.10 rupees on news that parent Tatas and partner Japan's DoCoMo were keen to arrive on a settlement in their long pending dispute worth $1.2 billion.

Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile services provider, jumped 3.1 per cent to 366.75 rupees on news the company had taken steps to eliminate international roaming charges for its users and that it was making efforts to convince global peers to do the same.

Idea Cellular fell 3 per cent to 111 rupees as a large block deal hit the stock, which has appreciated more than 80 per cent in the past 2 months on expectations that it will merge with larger rival Vodafone Plc.

Meanwhile, here are the major events of the trading day:

* The Nifty rose 5 points to 8,901 points in the first 30 minutes of trade, retracing from an earlier high of 8,911 points. The index is trading at its highest level since early September and less than 2 per cent below its previous record high.

* Bharti Airtel, Bharti Infratel, Tech Mahindra, Zee Entertainment and GAIL rosel 1.1-3.1 per cent and were among 31 gainers on the Nifty.

* Idea Cellular, Coal India, ITC, Tata Motors and TCS lost between 0.3-3.1 per cent and were among 19 stocks to slip in early deals on the Nifty.

* Idea Cellular was the top traded counter by value with Rs 177 crore worth of shares changing hands in the first 40 minutes of trade. Reliance Industries and Jindal Steel & Power continued their uptrend on strong volumes and delivery-led purchases. A new entrant on the list was RBL Bank, up 3.4 per cent at 484 rupees. The private sector bank got listed late last year.

* JP Associates, Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications were the other stocks on the list of most active shares.

* Broader markets inched up in trade with the Nifty 100, 200 and 500 benchmarks edging higher.

* All sectoral indexes posted gains, except the FMCG benchmark. The Media index was the top gainer, up 0.9 per cent. Banks were quiet.

* While indices failed to show the upward momentum, it was clearly visible in the broader market where 959 shares advanced compared to 540 that fell.