Mumbai, Feb. 25 -- The domestic equity benchmarks traded sideways in the afternoon trade, The Nifty traded above the 25,400 level. Metal, auto and pharma shared advanced, while PSU bank, realty and FMCG shares declined.

At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, shed 22.60 points or 0.03% to 82,203.32. The Nifty 50 index added 23.60 points or 0.10% to 25,448.25.

In the broader market, the BSE 150 MidCap Index added 0.26% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index rose 0.13%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,937 shares rose and 2,097 shares fell. A total of 201 shares were unchanged.

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, dropped 4.82% to 13.47.

Gainers & Losers:

Tata ...