The key equity barometers traded with minor gains in early trade. Nifty opened at 24641 and hit a high of 24665 in first half hour of trade. Nifty Chemicals, Nifty Pharma and Nifty PSU Bank shares gained, while Nifty Media and Nifty Auto shares declined. At 09:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, up 132.89 points to 78,713.89. The Nifty 50 index edged higher by 14.95 points or 0.06% to 24,639.60. The broader market performed worse than frontline indices. The BSE 150 MidCap Index posted modest gains of 0.22% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index added 0.32%. The market breadth was well-supported. On the BSE, 2610 shares advanced and 1842 shares retreated. A total of 249 shares were unchanged. Nifty Chemicals index added 0.64% to 30592. The index has edged up 0.58% in last one month and posted modest gains of 4.16% over last one year. Navin Fluo.Intl., moving higher 6.55%, led the gainers followed by PCBL Chemical, edging up 1.37% and Solar Industries, up 1.28%, respectively. Out of 20 index constituents, 11 are reporting gains today. Nifty Pharma index edged higher by 0.51% to 26698. The index has posted modest gains of 2.70% in last one month and recorded robust gains of 20.91% over last one year. Biocon, adding 2.46%, led the gainers followed by Cipla, inching higher 2.21% and Sai Life, gaining 1.83%, respectively. Out of 20 index constituents, 13 are reporting gains today. Nifty Media index declined 1.11%. The index has added 5.15% in last one month and edged lower by 3.96% over last one year. Saregama India, losing 4.77%, led the losers followed by Tips Music, edging lower 2.44% and Zee Entertainmen, slipping 2.17%, respectively. Out of 10 index constituents, 7 are reporting loss today. In NIFTY500, Neuland Labs. is the top gainer today, jumping 8.19% to Rs 21600. The counter has rallied 55.55% in last one year. It recorded an average volume quantity of 2993.50 in last five sessions compared to 2402.87 over last one month. Asian markets slumped on Thursday. China’s Shanghai composite is slightly lower by 0.06%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is significantly lower by 1.86%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 is lower by 0.87%.