Asian stocks were cautiously mixed, with China's Shanghai Composite falling further amid trade tensions.

The Indian rupee traded lower by 12 paise at 68.91 per dollar on fresh demand for the American currency.

Yesterday rupee closed near five-year low at 68.80 per dollar. It ended lower by 33 paise against Friday's close 68.47 .

Yesterday rupee gained in the first half of the session but came under pressure in the latter half of the session following strength in the dollar against its major crosses and higher global crude oil prices. Yesterday, crude rallied after Libya declared force majeure on some of its supplies, although an overall rise in OPEC output and an emerging slowdown in demand held back markets, said Motilal Oswal.

Libya’s National Oil Corporation declared force majeure on loadings from Zueitina and Hariga ports, resulting in total production losses of 850,000 bpd due to the closure of eastern fields and ports. Today, USD-INR pair is expected to quote in the range of 68.80 and 69.30, it added.

Benchmark indices started off trade on a flat note depsite weakness in the Asian peers due to ongoing trade tensions between US and China.

The Sensex fell 33.24 points to 35,231.17 and the Nifty slipped 11.40 points to 10,645.90.

Hero MotoCorp, TCS, Dr Reddy's Labs, Bajaj Auto and Coal India are early gainers.

Vedanta, Grasim, Bharti Infratel, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Titan Company, Maruti Suzuki, Cipla, Yes Bank, PNB and Bank of Baroda are under pressure.

The Nifty Midcap index fell 54 points.

8K Miles Software, AU Small Finance, Vakrangee, SREI Infra, ICICI Prudential, IDBI Bank, Nalco and Ashok Leyland lost ground. while Strides Shasun, NCC, Tata Power and Jyothy Labs are gainers.

Benchmark indices traded mildly higher in the pre-opening despite weakness in Asian stocks.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 30.02 points to 35,294.43 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 47.30 points at 10,704.60.

The Nifty50 is likely to open flat on Tuesday but with a positive bias tracking muted trend seen in other Asian markets. The index closed 57 points lower at 10,657 on Monday.

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a flat opening for the broader index in India, a rise of 5 points or 0.05 percent. Nifty futures were trading around 10,655-level on the Singaporean Exchange.

Wall Street ended higher on Monday after a choppy session, with gains in Apple and other technology stocks offsetting worries about an escalating trade war between Washington and its trading partners, said a Reuters report.

Asian markets edged cautiously higher on Tuesday, retracing some of the sharp declines seen in the overnight session as stocks tracked gains seen on Wall Street although worries over US trade policy lingered in the background, it said.

Oil prices climbed on Tuesday after Libya declared force majeure on significant amounts of its supply, but rising overall output from OPEC as well as in the United States was dragging on markets.

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