Mumbai, Feb. 25 -- The headline equity benchmarks traded with substantial gains in the early trade. The Nifty traded above the 25,550 mark. Barring the Nifty Chemical index, all other sectoral indices on the NSE traded in the green, with the IT, metal and oil & gas indices gaining the most.

At 09:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, advanced 515.93 points or 0.62% to 82,741.85. The Nifty 50 index gained 146.40 points or 0.58% to 25,571.05.

The broader market underperformed the frontline indices. The BSE 150 MidCap Index added 0.44% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index rose 0.43%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,050 shares rose and 872 shares fell. A total of 169 shares were unchanged.

Foreign portfolio investors (FP...