Mumbai, March 8 : A benchmark index for Indian equities markets was trading more than half a percent up in the late afternoon trade Friday, as oil and gas, bank and consumer durables stocks gained.

However, information technology (IT) and media, entertainment and technology (TECk) and automobile scrips declined.

The 30-scrip Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 19,478.67 points, was ruling at 19,535.17 points, up 121.63 points or 0.63 percent from its previous close at 19,413.54 points.

The Sensex touched an intra-day high of 19,581.95 points and a low of 19,477.61 points. The midcap index was up 26.05 points, while the smallcap index was 30.40 points higher.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was trading higher by 44.10 points or 0.75 percent at 5,907.40 points.

The BSE oil and gas index was up 115.20 points, followed by the bank index, which was trading higher by 101.33 points and the capital goods index, up 81.56 points.

The BSE IT index was down 52.84 points, the TECk index was trading 19.59 points lower and the automobile index was down 12.02 points. (IANS)