Equity benchmark indices witnessed a flat start to Thursday's trade with a slight uptick after the bill to raise the debt ceiling was passed by the House of Representatives in the US.

Positive macro data with a strong Q4 GDP growth of 6.1 per cent also aided the overall sentiment.

At 9:40 hours, the 30-share benchmark index was trading at 62638.9 up by 16.66 points or by 0.03 % and then NSE Nifty was at 18538.7 up by 4.3 points or by 0.02 %.

Sensex touched intraday high of 62750.93 and intraday low of 62526.18 The NSE Nifty touched intraday high of 18580 and intraday low of 18526.55

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were Asian Paints Ltd. (Rs. 3246.70,+1.52%), Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (Rs. 2695.50,+1.31%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 1129.90,+1.09%), Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (Rs. 3321.70,+0.93%), Axis Bank Ltd. (Rs. 922.20,+0.82%), among others.

The top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were Bharti Airtel Ltd. (Rs. 827.10,-3.53%), Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. (Rs. 1944.05,-2.53%), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (Rs. 9266.85,-0.97%), IndusInd Bank Ltd. (Rs. 1278.00,-0.67%), Tata Motors Ltd. (Rs. 523.30,-0.60%), among others.

Realty index was at 3885.89 up by 52.73 points or by 1.38%. Sobha Ltd. (Rs. 543.95,+4.54%), Macrotech Developers Ltd. (Rs. 563.50,+3.45%), Godrej Industries Ltd. (Rs. 1417.40,+2.03%), Oberoi Realty Ltd. (Rs. 945.65,+1.63%), Phoenix Mills Ltd. (Rs. 1490.35,+1.32%),.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 3046 , shares advanced were 2083 while 844 shares declined and 119 were unchanged.