The key benchmark indices were range bound in afternoon deals, as most overseas markets were subdued on Thursday. The Sensex rose 50 points to 15,517 and the Nifty gained 22 points to trade at 4,630.

Some buying interest was seen in consumer durables, realty and metal stocks. The BSE realty index was up 1.5 per cent and the metal index rose 1.3 per cent. The consumer durables index on the BSE was up also 1.5 per cent.

In the Sensex pack, RCom led the gainers. The stock rose 5.5 per cent. Sterlite Ind also rose 3.3 per cent. TCS, ICICI Bank and Sun Pharma were up over 1.3 per cent each.

Tata Power, however, was trading 1.5 per cent lower.

Chinese shares jumped 5 percent Thursday following reports that lending by big state-owned banks remained robust in August, though they later fell back slightly.

The Shanghai Composite Index gained 130.05 points, or 4.8 percent to close at 2845.02. In other Asian markets, gains were limited by a report showing that the US hemorrhaged more jobs than expected last month.