Mumbai, Mar 3 (IANS): The key Indian equity indices continued to rise on Wednesday morning with the BSE Sensex rising over 400 points.

Sensex surged around 479 points to touch an intraday high of 50,776.48 points.

Healthy buying was witnessed in metal, banking and finance stocks.

Around 10.10 a.m., it was trading at 50,687.49, higher by 390.60 points or 0.78 per cent from its previous close of 50,296.89.

It opened at 50,738.21 and has recorded an intraday low of 50,512.84 points.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange was trading at 15,044.85, higher by 125.75 points or 0.84 per cent from its previous close.

Manish Hathiramani, technical analyst with Deen Dayal Investments said: "The Nifty has opened well above the resistance zone of 14,950. We need the markets to keep above this level for a few hours which would cement the bullish trend. The index can thereafter claim higher targets of 15,300 and then 15,500. Now, 14,700-14,800 has become a good support range for the markets."

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel, Axis Bank and State Bank of India, while the major losers Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki and NTPC were the major losers.