The Sensex and Nifty traded higher in afternoon trade on Friday, with the Nifty approaching the 24,400 mark, supported by gains in media, auto, pharma and energy stocks, while losses in IT and FMCG counters limited the upside.

At 14:28 hours, the 30-share benchmark index was trading at 78176.91 up by 248.76 points or by 0.32 % and then NSE Nifty was at 24402.65 up by 85.5 points or by 0.35 %.

Sensex touched intraday high of 78272.25 and intraday low of 77809.93 The NSE Nifty touched intraday high of 24429.4 and intraday low of 24299.7

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were Bajaj Finance Ltd. (Rs. 1150.05,+8.90%), Bajaj Finserv Ltd. (Rs. 2023.45,+5.99%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 3413.95,+4.12%), Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd. (Rs. 1698.30,+2.04%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Rs. 2041.30,+2.03%), among others.

The top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (Rs. 2364.60,-2.77%), Eternal Ltd. (Rs. 303.90,-2.22%), Infosys Ltd. (Rs. 1132.95,-2.00%), ITC Ltd. (Rs. 281.15,-1.44%), InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. (Rs. 5172.00,-1.14%), among others.

Auto index was at 63360.27 up by 1333.29 points or by 2.15%. Balkrishna Industries Ltd. (Rs. 2505.90,+8.66%), Hyundai Motor India Ltd. (Rs. 2194.40,+8.39%), Tata Motors Ltd. (Rs. 439.30,+5.79%), Ashok Leyland Ltd. (Rs. 166.35,+5.09%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 3413.95,+4.12%),.

_IT index was at 29516.78 down by -400.63 points or by -1.34%. Expleo Solutions Ltd. (Rs. 806.00,-11.24%), Nucleus Software Exports Ltd. (Rs. 690.00,-6.28%), Sagility Ltd. (Rs. 43.32,-5.81%), Nintec Systems Ltd. (Rs. 789.45,-5.00%), GNG Electronics Ltd. (Rs. 529.20,-5.00%),.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 4599 , shares advanced were 2650 while 1698 shares declined and 251 were unchanged.