The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex today made gains for the third straight day

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- up 131 points on sustained buying by funds, especially in IT and metal sectors amid strong gains in the Asian region on signs of growth in major global economies.

Sensex, which had gained 437 points in last two sessions, rose another 131.27 points, 0.76 per cent to 17,431.85.

Similarly, the National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose 34.20 points, or 0.65 per cent to 5,269.90.

Top IT firms Infosys shot up by 0.68 per cent, Tata Consultancy Services by 1.62 per cent and Wipro 3.46 per cent.

Brokers positive cues from Asia followed improving factory output figures from China, the US and Germany for the month of January, easing worries over slowing global growth.

After the Supreme Court quashed 122 telecom licences issued to new operators in 2008, stocks of old player such as Bharti Airtel and Idea rose 6.88 per cent and 2.68 per cent.

Major gainers included Hero MotoCorp, Larsen and Toubro, BHEL, Hindalco, Sterlite Industries, Tata Power, DLF Ltd., Gail India, Maruti Suzuki, SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Coal India.

Markets @ 09.00 AM (PTI)

The BSE benchmark Sensex surged by nearly 172 points in early trade today on buying by funds and retail investors, driven by encouraging quarterly earnings by corporates and firming trend on the other Asian bourses.

The 30-share BSE index, which had gained over 437 points in the previous two sessions, rose by another 171.72 points, or 0.99 per cent, to 17,472.30, with all sectoral indices gaining up to 1.41 per cent.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange Nifty Index moved up by 44.75 points, or 0.85 per cent to 5,280.45 points.

Brokers said continued capital inflows by foreign funds following an improvement in the sentiments on better-than- expected third quarter earnings by some corporates and strong sales in January by auto makers, supported the rally.

Also, firming trend on the other Asian bourses following overnight gains in the US stocks also buoyed the sentiments here, they said.

In the Asian region, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose by 1.35 per cent and Japan's Nikkei Index by 0.87 per cent in morning trade today.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.66 per cent higher yesterday.