The key equity barometers traded with slight gains in early trade. Nifty opened at 24225 and hit a high of 24225 in first half hour of trade. Nifty IT, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Private Bank shares advanced, while Nifty Auto shares declined. At 09:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, moved higher by 540.50 points or 0.70% to 77,450.18. The Nifty 50 index inched up 107.20 points or 0.45% to 24,185.50. The broader market lagged behind the frontline indices. The BSE 150 MidCap Index added 0.65% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index edged higher by 0.73%. The market breadth was encouraging. On the BSE, 2757 shares rose and 972 shares retreated. A total of 229 shares were unchanged. Nifty IT index added 0.81% to 30680. The index has risen slightly by 4.36% in last one month and shed 12.44% over last one year. LTM, adding 2.34%, led the gainers followed by Infosys, up 1.74% and Wipro, gaining 1%, respectively. Out of 10 index constituents, 8 are reporting gains today. Nifty Financial Services index posted modest gains of 0.77% to 26213. The index has slipped by 2.11% in last one month and inched down 2.18% over last one year. Muthoot Finance, inching higher 4.28%, led the gainers followed by Shriram Finance, edging up 2.54% and Bajaj Finance, inching higher 1.57%, respectively. Out of 20 index constituents, 17 are reporting gains today. Nifty Auto index moved lower by 0.05%. The index has risen 7.98% in last one month and rallied 14.65% over last one year. Bajaj Auto, edging lower 0.58%, led the losers followed by Bosch, losing 0.38% and Hero Motocorp, slipping 0.38%, respectively. Out of 15 index constituents, 7 are reporting loss today. In NIFTY500, MMTC is the top gainer today, registering sharp gains of 7.70% to Rs 66.88. The counter is marginally down 4.82% in last one year. It recorded an average volume quantity of 72561.83 in last five sessions compared to 101911.26 over last one month. Asian markets soared on Thursday. China’s Shanghai composite is modestly higher by 0.28%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is trading higher by 1.11%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 is ahead by 0.84%.