Indian benchmark indices maintained their strong gains on Friday afternoon, with the Sensex rising over 500 points and the Nifty trading near the 23,950 mark.

At 14:20 hours, the 30-share benchmark index was trading at up 540.18 points, or 0.71 percent, at 76,693.04, while the Nifty gained 75.60 points, or 0.32 percent, to 23,949.05.

Metal stocks led sectoral gains, rising over 1%, while Oil & Gas and private bank stocks also advanced.

On the downside, Realty stocks emerged as the biggest sectoral laggards, followed by consumer durables and pharma.

The broader market performance was mixed, with the Nifty Midcap index declining 0.24%, while the Nifty Smallcap index gained 0.24%.

Market breadth remained positive, while India VIX declined 3.53%, indicating lower market volatility.