Mumbai, Feb. 1 -- The key equity benchmarks traded near the flat line with some positive bias in early trade ahead of the Union Budget. The Nifty traded above the 23,500 level. Barring the Nifty IT index, all the other sectoral indices on the NSE traded in the green.

At 09:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, advanced 23.63 points or 0.03% to 77,524.20. The Nifty 50 index added 15.55 points or 0.07% to 23,523.95.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index advanced 0.47% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.82%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1,769 shares rose and 1,119 shares fell. A total of 116 shares were unchanged.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 1,188.99 crore, while domest...