Mumbai, April 2 -- The headline equity benchmarks continued to trade with decent gains in mid-afternoon trade. The Nifty traded near the 22,300 level. Bank shares advanced after declining for the past two consecutive trading sessions.

At 14:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rallied 471.13 points or 0.62% to 76,493.18. The Nifty 50 index added 133.95 points or 0.58% to 23,299.65.

The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.14% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.89%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,678 shares rose and 1,175 shares fell. A total of 159 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

India's manufacturing sector growth recovered the ground lost in February, pi...