Mumbai, March 22 -- The key equity indices continued to extend gains in the afternoon trade. The Nifty marched above the 22,100 level. Barring the Nifty IT index, all the sectoral indices on the NSE traded in the green.

At 13:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 204.99 points or 0.28% to 72,846.18. The Nifty 50 index rose 93.20 points or 0.42% to 22,105.15.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.38% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index advanced 1.17%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,492 shares rose and 1,209 shares fell. A total of 117 shares were unchanged.

Gainers & Losers:

Maruti Suzuki India (up 4.17%), UPL (up 3.55%), Hero MotoCorp (up 3.34%), Bajaj Auto (up 2.70%) and Sun Pharmaceutic...