Mumbai, Dec 12 : The Indian stock market opened higher on Thursday ahead of the consumer price index (CPI) data. In the early trade, selling was seen in Nifty's auto and PSU bank sectors.

At around 9:30 am, Sensex was trading at 81,633.07 after gaining 106.93 points or 0.13 per cent, while the Nifty was trading at 24,658.25 after rising 16.45 points or 0.07 per cent.

The market trend remained positive. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,124 stocks were trading in green, while 1,065 stocks were in red.

According to market experts, "The range-bound consolidation construct of the market is set to continue. The bull run in the US is continuing unabated with Nasdaq setting a new record and closing above 20,000 yesterday."

"The 'Magnificent Seven' stocks continue their resilience and uptrend despite elevated valuations. The strength of the mother market, which indicates that the global market rally is intact, is a support for other markets, too," they added.

Nifty Bank was up 65.80 points or 0.12 per cent at 53,457.15. Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 59,381.40 after rising 88.45 points or 0.15 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 19,704.60 after gaining 47.25 points or 0.24 per cent.

In the Sensex pack, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, TCS, Infosys, M&M, HCL Tech, Axis Bank and SBI were the top gainers. Titan, Tata Motors, Asian Paints, L&T, Tata Steel and Bajaj Finance were the top losers.

In the Asian markets, except Jakarta, the markets of Hong Kong, Bangkok, China, Seoul and Japan were trading in green.

In US stock markets the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite ended 0.82 per cent and 1.77 per cent higher, respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.22 per cent down on the previous trading day.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth Rs 1,012.24 crore on December 11, while domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 2,007.85 crore on the same day.

/IANS