Stock Market Updates: Sensex up 150 points, Nifty above 16,300; Power Grid, ITC top gainers

Indian benchmark indices opened higher amid mixed global cues. At 09:18 hours, the 30-share BSE index was trading 154 points or 0.28 per cent higher at 54,679.96, and the broader NSE Nifty was up 29.6 points or 0.18 per cent to 16,311.85.

Power Grid and ITC were the top gainers in the Sensex pack, advancing over 2 per cent, followed by M&M, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Auto and Bajaj  Finance.

On the other hand, DRL and Asian Paints and were among the losers.

On Wednesday, the benchmark indices closed flat amid a rally in metal shares. Sensex ended 28 points lower at 54,525 and Nifty gained 2 points to 16,282.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 238.14 crore crore on August 11 and DIIs lapped up shares worth Rs 206.28 crore, as per provisional data available on NSE.

Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research  Analyst, HDFC Securities said, “The short-term trend of Nifty continues to be range bound with volatile movement and similar market action is expected to continue for the next session. Nifty is currently placed at the support of 10 period EMA at 16,150 levels and could possibly make another upside attempt towards 16,350 in the next session. Immediate support is placed at 16,180 levels.”