Mumbai, March 24 (IANS): A benchmark index of Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex), made healthy gains in the late-afternoon trade session on Tuesday and was trading up 190 points or 0.67 percent.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), too, made gains in the late-afternoon trade session. The Nifty was trading up 57.55 points or 0.67 percent at 8,608.45 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 28,209.33 points, was trading at 28,382.25 points (at 2.30 p.m.), up 190.23 points or 0.67 percent from the previous day's close at 28,192.02 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 28,455.32 points and a low of 28,157.83 points in the intra-day trade so far.

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

However, automobile, metal and realty stocks came under selling pressure.

The S&P BSE healthcare index was up 296.61 points, followed by oil and gas index which augmented by 84.25 points, consumer durables index was higher by 80.56 points, IT index rose 74.40 points and TECK index gained 46.97 points.

The S&P BSE automobile index was down 46 points, metal index dropped by 5.75 points, and realty index slipped by 3.57 points.