Mumbai, Apr 15 (IANS): India's key benchmark equity indices made healthy gains during Thursday's late afternoon session.

Accordingly, volatility was observed as rising Covid cases capped any major recovery attempts on the back healthy Q4FY21 results.

However, a bout of late session buying spree pushed both the indices higher.

On the sectoral front, Metal and Health Care have shown some strength while Auto and IT sector were the top losers each shredding nearly 2 per cent.

Around 1.55 p.m., Sensex traded at 48,722.19, higher by 178.13 points or 0.37 per cent from its previous close.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange traded at 14,564.20, up 59.40 points or 0.41 per cent from its previous close.

"Currently, both Nifty and Bank Nifty are showing some signs of recovery; but are quite volatile within a range," said Jay Purohit, Technical & Derivatives Analyst, MOFSL.

"Support for Nifty is placed at 14200 while on the upside hurdle is seen at 14600 and 14700 zones."

According to Gaurav Garg, Head of Research at CapitalVia Global Research: "Market opened with a gap up but with increased concerns over rise in Covid cases, the market could not maintain the higher levels and corrected till the level of 14400."

"Market continues to trade in a range between 14250-14800 with 14200 being a major support in the short period of time."