Mumbai, Apr 19 (IANS): The key Indian equity markets provisionally closed higher on Thursday, tracking a similar trend in the benchmark Asian markets.

Heavy buying in the metal, capital goods and IT stocks also helped the market sentiment remain positive.

At 3.30 p.m., the wider Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) provisionally closed higher by 39.10 points, or 0.37 per cent, at 10,565.30 points.

The barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 34,403.67 points, closed at 34,427.29 points -- up 95.61 points, or 0.28 per cent, from its previous session's close.

The Sensex touched a high of 34,478.82 points and a low of 34,358.91 during the intra-day trade.

The BSE market breadth was bullish with 1,265 advances and 1,082 declines.

On Wednesday, profit booking, along with heavy selling pressure in the banking sector stock, led the key Indian equity indices to break their nine-day gaining streak and end in the red.

The Nifty50 fell by 22.50 points, or 0.21 per cent, to close at 10,526.20 points on Wednesday, and the Sensex closed at 34,331.68 points -- down 63.38 points, or 0.18 per cent.

On Thursday, the major gainers on the BSE were Tata Steel, Yes Bank, Bharti Airtel, Larsen and Toubro and ONGC while Axis Bank, Coal India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hero MotoCorp and IndusInd Bank were among the top losers.

On NSE, the top gainers were Hindalco, Vedanta, and Tata Steel whereas the major losers were BPCL, Hindustan Petroleum and Indian Oil Corp.