Mumbai, March 18 -- The key equity benchmarks continued to trade with strong gains in early afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 22,750 mark. Consumer durable shares jumped for the second consecutive trading session.

At 12:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, advanced 837.31 points or 1.13% to 75,006.33. The Nifty 50 index rallied 248.20 points or 1.10% to 22,756.95.

The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 1.58% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index jumped 2.21%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2726 shares rose and 1122 shares fell. A total of 153 shares were unchanged.

Dervatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the nea...