Mumbai, Aug 16 : Indian equity indices opened strong on Friday following positive global cues, including optimism around a potential rate cut by the US Federal Reserve next month.

At 9:50 a.m., Sensex was up 608 points or 0.76 per cent at 79,714 and Nifty was up 166 points or 0.69 per cent at 24,310.

The market trend was bullish in the opening trade. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,704 shares opened in green mark and 345 shares in red.

INDIAVIX was trading at 14.79, down 4.21 percent compared to the previous trading session. This showed that the market remains stable.

Along with largecap, positive trends were being seen in midcap and smallcap stocks. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was at 57,057, up 522 points or 0.92 per cent, and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 18,274, up 187 points or 0.25 per cent.

All indices were trading in the green. Auto, IT, PSU Bank, fin Service, pharma, FMCG, realty and energy and healthcare were major gainers.

Vaishali Parekh, Vice President (Technical Research) of Prabhudas Lilladher, said, "Nifty witnessed a consolidated session with very narrow rangebound movement and as mentioned earlier, would have the 24,000 zone as the crucial and important support as of now which needs to sustain to maintain the overall trend intact."

"On the upside, the index needs to sustain above 24,200 levels to improve the bias and thereafter decisively breach above the resistance barrier of 24,400 zone to strengthen the trend," she added.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth Rs 2595 crore on August 14, while domestic institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 2236 crore on the same day.

Almost all Asian markets were trading in green. Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and Jakarta were major gainers. US markets closed positive on Thursday.

Market watchers said that globally, "stock markets have turned around smartly from the August 5th sell-off triggered by US recession fears and the unwinding of the yen carry trade. Latest data on US inflation and unemployment relief do not indicate an economy tipping into recession."

/IANS