Mumbai, Dec 11 (IANS): The Indian stock market continued its flattish opening trajectory this week, as selling was seen in Nifty's financial service and private bank sector in early trade on Wednesday.

At around 9:27 am, Sensex was trading at 81,515.06 after gaining 5.01 points or 0.01 per cent, while the Nifty was trading at 24,623.8 after rising 13.75 points or 0.06 per cent.

The market trend remained positive. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,634 stocks were trading in green, while 565 stocks were in red.

According to market experts, "Nifty is in a consolidation range and is likely to remain in this consolidation phase with a mild upward bias in the near-term."

"The biggest positive for the market is the return of the FIIs and the consequent strength in the large caps, particularly in banking and IT," they added.

Nifty Bank was down 122.45 points or 0.23 per cent at 53,455.25. Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 59,129.95 after failing 5.45 points or 0.01 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 19,636.65 after gaining 53.45 points or 0.27 per cent.

Akshay Chinchalkar of Axis Securities said that Nifty ended down a third day, but the late-session rebound has traced a candlestick with a long lower shadow, showing demand near 24500.

“Note that this level represents a so-called ‘polarity' zone which was formerly resistance,” he informed.

In the Sensex pack, UltraTech Cement, Nestle, Infosys, Maruti, Adani Ports, Tata Motors, Asian Paints, Sun Pharma and L&T were the top gainers. ICICI Bank, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the top losers.

In Asian markets, the markets of Hong Kong and Japan were trading in red. while Jakarta, Bangkok, China, and Seoul were trading in green. The US stock markets closed in red on the previous trading day.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 1,285.96 crore on December 10, while domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 605.79 crore on the same day.