Mumbai, Nov 21 (IANS): A benchmark index for Indian equities markets advanced 79 points in the afternoon trade Wednesday, led by buying support in banking, consumer durables and realty stocks.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened in the positive at 18,379.90 points, was trading at 18,408.35 points in the afternoon session, up 0.43 percent or 79.03 points from its previous day close at 18,329.32 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 18,438 points and low of 18,309.81 points in the intra-day.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was trading 0.43 percent or 23.95 points higher at 5,595.50 points.

There was good buying support in consumer durables, reatly, banking and IT stocks. Consumer durables index of the BSE was 1.33 percent higher at 7,486.73. The realty index was up 1.33 percent, the FMCG index was 0.97 percent higher and the banking index was trading with a gain of 0.75 percent.

Sun Pharma, 2.22 percent higher at Rs.697.90; Tata Power, up 1.83 percent at Rs.100.20; Jindal Steel, up 1.66 percent at Rs.374.60; ICICI Bank, up 1.55 percent at Rs.1,040; and Cipla, up 1.43 percent at Rs.385.25 were among the major Sensex gainers.

Only nine of the 30 Sensex scrips were trading in the red. NTPC was down 1.61 percent at Rs.165.10. BHEL, down 1.45 percent at Rs.224.85; Bharti Airtel, down 1.41 percent at Rs.304.90; Hero MotoCorp, down 1.21 percent at Rs.1802.55; and Maruti Suzuki, down 0.81 percent at Rs.1,487.40 were among the major Sensex losers.