Sensex trades flat; consumer durables stocks rise

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex), was trading flat in the afternoon session, even while consumer durables and oil and gas stocks rose.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also trading flat in the afternoon session. It was down 21.45 points or 0.24 percent at 8,756.85 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 28,889.27 points, was trading at 28,828.66 points (at 12.30 p.m.) in the afternoon session, down 56.55 points or 0.20 percent from the previous day's close at 28,885.21 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 28,899.19 points and a low of 28,768.28 points in the intra-day trade so far.

Healthy buying was observed in consumer durables, oil and gas, metal, automobile and realty sectors. However, healthcare, capital goods and information technology (IT)stocks came under selling pressure.

The S&P BSE consumer durables index was higher by 77.56 points, followed by oil and gas index which gained 41.98 points, metal index rose 28.88 points, automobile index moved up by 25.72 points and realty index gained 14.88 points.

However, healthcare index was down 130.91 points, capital goods index was lower by 48.65 points and IT index slipped by 11.10 points.