Mumbai, March 5 (IANS): A benchmark index of Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex), was trading flat in the afternoon session on Thursday.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also trading flat, down 16 points or 0.18 percent at 8,906.65 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 29,436.77 points, was trading at 29,355.20 (at 12 noon) in the afternoon session, down 25.53 points or 0.09 percent from the previous day's close at 29,380.73 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 29,496.60 points and a low of 29,310.53 points in the intra-day trade so far.

In Thursday's trade, capital goods, metal, information technology (IT), bank and technology, entertainment and media (TECK) stocks came under heavy selling pressure.

However, healthy buying was observed in healthcare, fast moving consumer goods, automobile and consumer durables sectors.

The S&P BSE capital goods index was down 219.19 points, metal index was lower by 71.72 points, IT index fell 38.95 points, bank index declined by 35.57 points and TECK index slipped by 27.44 points.

However, S&P BSE healthcare index rose 235.04 points, FMCG index was up 96.49 points, automobile index gained 19.95 points and consumer durables index increased 18.17 points.