The benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty 50 extended their gains in afternoon trade on Wednesday, with the Nifty crossing the 24,050 mark. The rally was driven by strong buying in banking and IT stocks, which led gains across the broader market and supported positive investor sentiment.

At 14:30 hours, the 30-share benchmark index was trading at 77054.62 up by 853.94 points or by 1.12 % and then NSE Nifty was at 24054.3 up by 230.2 points or by 0.97 %.

Sensex touched intraday high of 77190.37 and intraday low of 76121.59 The NSE Nifty touched intraday high of 24090.05 and intraday low of 23789.25

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. (Rs. 5175.00,+4.15%), Trent Ltd. (Rs. 3270.85,+4.11%), Infosys Ltd. (Rs. 1062.45,+3.20%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 1460.10,+3.17%), Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (Rs. 2116.25,+2.72%), among others.

The top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were Tata Steel Ltd. (Rs. 189.90,-1.94%), NTPC Ltd. (Rs. 359.75,-1.36%), Bharat Electronics Ltd. (Rs. 415.25,-1.12%), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (Rs. 13306.50,-1.06%), Eternal Ltd. (Rs. 256.20,-1.02%), among others.

_IT index was at 26965.13 up by 556.42 points or by 2.11%. Ramco Systems Ltd. (Rs. 668.95,+19.35%), Oracle Financial Services Software Ltd. (Rs. 10346.25,+4.92%), Allied Digital Services Ltd. (Rs. 124.45,+3.97%), Onward Technologies Ltd. (Rs. 266.95,+3.95%), Rashi Peripherals Ltd. (Rs. 761.50,+3.50%),.

CGS index was at 81816.68 down by -1202.49 points or by -1.45%. GE Vernova T&D India Ltd. (Rs. 5100.00,-5.44%), Hitachi Energy India Ltd. (Rs. 34450.00,-4.51%), Data Patterns (India) Ltd. (Rs. 4645.50,-3.87%), Carborundum Universal Ltd. (Rs. 1163.75,-3.74%), CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd. (Rs. 924.00,-2.72%),.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 4605 , shares advanced were 2271 while 2119 shares declined and 215 were unchanged.