Sensex, Nifty open higher; HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, RIL shares lead gains 

Stock market today: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty opened higher on Thursday. Sensex gained 175 pts to 78,756 and Nifty rose 11 pts to 24,634. Market cap of BSE listed firms stood at Rs 492.68 lakh crore. Stocks such as HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, RIL, Asian Paints and Eternal were the top Sensex gainers today, rising up to 1.13%.

PowerGrid, M&M, Axis Bank and Bajaj Finance were the top Sensex losers, falling up to 1.84%.  The BSE IT index rose 133 pts to 30,307 lending strength to the benchmark indices.

Brent crude oil prices were trading below the $80 per barrel mark, lending support to Indian equities. It stood at $79.38 per barrel.

Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities said, "From a technical perspective, the market is currently exhibiting range-bound movement. For traders, short-term support is positioned at 24,500-24,450 / 78,200-78,000, while the key resistance zone for bulls remains at 24,700-24,750 / 78,900-79,000. We believe that as long as the market trades within these ranges, a range-bound pattern is likely to persist. On the upside, a breakout above 24,750 / 79,000 could propel the market towards 24,850-24,900 / 79,300-79,500.  Conversely, a breach below 24,450 / 78,000 could lead the market towards 24,300 / 77,500.

On the FII inflows, VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments said, "Even though FIIs have been buyers recently, it is yet to become a strong sustainable trend. FIIs may continue to invest in small amounts, but big sustained FII inflows are unlikely since U.S. bond yields continue to remain high and may rise further."

Previous session 

Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty closed higher on Wednesday. Sensex gained 152 pts to 78,581 and Nifty rose 9 pts to 24,624. Market cap of BSE listed firms stood at Rs 492.43 lakh crore.