From correspondents in Maharashtra, India, 02:01 PM IST

The Indian equities markets which opened with a positive gap Wednesday were trading flat early afternoon.

At 12:30 p.m. the 30-share benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the Sensex, was trading at 16,346.59 with a gain of 71 points. It touched a high of 16,370.23 and a low of 16,217.78 points.

At the same time, the S and amp;P Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange was trading at 4,863.65 points with a marginal gain of 3.85 points.

The market breadth turned negative. On BSE 1,051 stocks advanced, 1,401 declined and 77 remained unchanged.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)