Equity benchmarks continued to trade strong, though wiped out some gains in afternoon while broader markets extended losses.


The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 259.60 points at 36,310.04 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 56.20 points at 11,125.90.

The Nifty Midcap index was down nearly 1 percent. About two shares declined for every share rising on the NSE.

HDFC shares gained more than 2 percent after it reported 6.6 percent growth in revenue from operations and profit at Rs 5,670 crore, including one-time gain of Rs 3,675 crore from stake sale in HDFC Standard Life Insurance.