Mumbai, March 3 (IANS): A benchmark index of Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex), was trading 75 points or 0.26 percent up in Tuesday's late afternoon trade session.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also made gains during the late afternoon trade. It was up 12.55 points or 0.14 percent at 8,969.30 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 29,500.19 points, was trading at 29,534.30 points (at 1.10 p.m.), up 75.16 points or 0.26 percent from the previous day's close at 29,459.14 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 29,570.02 points and a low of 29,364.87 points in the intra-day trade so far.

Healthy buying was observed in healthcare, oil and gas, information technology (IT), consumer durables and technology, entertainment and media (TECK) stocks.

However, auto, metal, bank, capital goods and realty stocks came under selling pressure.

The S&P BSE healthcare index was up 292.09, followed by oil and gas index which was higher by 233.55 points, IT index rose 99.20 points, consumer durables index augmented by 79.63 points and TECK index gained 47.12 points.

However, S&P BSE automobile index was down 199.09 points, metal index was lower by 132.56 points, bank index lost 109.02 points, capital goods index fell 54.93 points and realty index slipped 15.66 points.