Mumbai, April 28 -- The domestic equity benchmarks traded with robust gains in the early afternoon trade, as investors turned their focus to a heavy lineup of earnings announcements, sectoral trends, and global cues. The Nifty traded near the 24,300 level. PSU bank shares advanced after declining in the past three consecutive trading sessions.

At 12:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, surged 1,071.51 points or 1.35% to 80,284.04. The Nifty 50 index jumped 309.55 points or 1.29% to 24,348.90.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 1.16% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.53%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 2,055 shares rose and 1,740 shares fell. A total of 215 shares were unchanged.

The...