Mumbai, March 4 (IANS): Key Indian equity market indices were trading flat on Friday, after three straight days of gains. The key indices, however, opened in the positive territory.

Against the previous close at 24,606.99 points, the sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE opened at 24704.59 points. Soon after, it was trading at 24,621.67 points, with a gain of 14.67 points, or 0.06 percent.

At the NSE, against the previous close at 7,505.40 points, the 50-share Nifty was trading at 7,474.00 points, down 1.60 points, or 0.02 percent, over the previous close at 7,475.60 points.

Within the Sensex basket of 30 shares, 14 shares were down, while the 16 remaining ones posted some gains, while in the case of Nifty, 23 were in the red, while 27 advanced

After some jittery trading on Monday, the day the budget was presented, there have been three straight sessions of impressive rallies, that has made the Sensex gain 1,604.99 points or 6.83 percent, and the Nifty logged a rise of 488.55 points or 6.85 percent.

From the other Asian markets, however, the signals were mixed. Japan's benchmark Nikkei and South Korea's Pospi were down, the Hang Seng of Hong Kong was up, while the Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Composite were trading flat.

The other global markets had finished higher on Thursday.