Markets open at record highs; Nifty above 8,100

Markets opened at record highs, anid firm Asian cues, with auto and select index heavyweights leading the gains in early trades..

At 9:17, the 30-share Sensex was up 109 points at 27,128 and 50-share Nifty was up 33 points at 8,116.

Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Cipla, L&T and Tata Power were among the top Sensex gainers in opening trades.

On the global front, Asian shares were trading higher with Hang Seng rebounding after lacklustre movement in the previous sessions. Japanese shares were up on the back of a weaker yen.

The benchmark Nikkei was up 0.8%, while the Hang Seng was up over 1%. Chinese shares were up 0.7% while Singapore's Straits Times was trading marginally higher by 0.2%.

Major US stock markets ended lower on Tuesday, shrugging off robust manufacturing data, as investors booked profits in energy shares on the back of declining crude oil prices.

Manufacturing activity in the US surged to a three-and-half year high in August and construction spending rebounded in July. National factory activity increased to 59.0 in August, the highest since March 2011, from 57.1 in July. The Dow Jones ended down 0.2% at 17,067.56, the broader S&P 500 closed 0.05% down at 2,002.28 and the tech-laden Nasdaq ended down 0.4% at 4,598.19.

The market breadth was positive with 927 gainers and 217 losers on the BSE.