Buying support buoys Indian equities (Second Lead)

Mumbai March 9 (IANS) Indian equity markets provisionally closed on a flat-to-positive note on Thursday as healthy buying support was witnessed in automobile banking and consumer durables stocks.

The wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) inched up 2.70 points or 0.03 per cent to 8 927 points.

The barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE which opened at 28 909.70 points provisionally closed at 28 929.13 points (at 3.30 p.m.) - up 27.19 points or 0.09 per cent from the previous close at 28 901.94 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 28 986.72 points and a low of 28 815.02 points in intra-day trade.

The BSE market breadth was tilted in favour of bears -- with 1 622 declines and 1 179 advances.

On Wednesday the benchmark indices closed lower on the back of a marginally weak rupee.

The NSE Nifty fell by 22.60 points or 0.25 per cent to close at 8 924.30 points and the BSE Sensex was down 96.77 points or 0.33 per cent at 28 902.79 points.

--IANS
ppg-rv/mr