The key equity barometers traded with slight gains in early trade. Nifty opened at 24284 and hit a high of 24284 in first half hour of trade. Nifty Metal, Nifty Private Bank and Nifty Realty shares gained, while Nifty Healthcare Index and Nifty Pharma shares retreated. At 09:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, up 44.26 points to 77,581.98. The Nifty 50 index up 4.40 points to 24,236.25. The broader market performed worse than frontline indices. The BSE 150 MidCap Index moved higher by 0.17% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index inched up 0.52%. The market breadth was well-supported. On the BSE, 2619 shares rose and 2155 shares declined. A total of 258 shares were unchanged. Nifty Metal index inched up 0.61% to 13140. The index has posted modest gains of 4.12% in last one month and posted strong gains of 37.51% over last one year. Welspun Corp, surging 16.61%, led the gainers followed by Hindustan Zinc, edging up 2.41% and Hindustan Copper, gaining 2.17%, respectively. Out of 15 index constituents, 9 are reporting gains today. Nifty Private Bank index edged higher by 0.47% to 27578. The index has drifted lower by 1.48% in last one month and posted modest gains of 1.89% over last one year. Bandhan Bank, adding 1.18%, led the gainers followed by Kotak Mah. Bank, up 1.12% and Federal Bank, inching higher 0.93%, respectively. Out of 10 index constituents, 7 are reporting gains today. Nifty Healthcare Index index moved lower by 0.81%. The index has posted modest losses of 0.15% in last one month and advanced 12.87% over last one year. Torrent Pharma., losing 1.72%, led the losers followed by Cipla, down 1.58% and Piramal Pharma, easing 1.34%, respectively. Out of 20 index constituents, 17 are reporting loss today. In NIFTY500, Welspun Corp is the top gainer today, spiking 16.61% to Rs 2336.95. The counter has soared 129.77% in last one year. It recorded an average volume quantity of 37418.33 in last five sessions compared to 42263.79 over last one month. Asian markets edged higher on Friday. China’s Shanghai composite is modestly higher by 0.10%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is higher by 1%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 is slightly lower by 0.30%.