Sensex up 163pts, Nifty up 42pts

The Sensex is now up 163 points at 17313. The benchmark index, shot up by over 105 points to set an intra-day peak in early trade at the Bombay Stock Exchange today on sustained buying by funds led by refinery stocks amid firming global trend.

Tata Steel has rallied 6.34% to Rs 845. REL too is up 4.36% at 1,166. Ranbaxy has risen 3.46% to Rs 434.95. Hindalco is up 3.41% to
Rs 169.70.

SBI, RCom, Cipla are all up between 2-3%. ITC, Maruti and  Satyam are up more than 1%.

The wide-based National Stocks Exchange's index Nifty is now up 42 points at 5042.

Marketmen attributed the consistent rise in key indices, Sensex and Nifty, to firm global stock markets such as US Dow Jones, Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Japan's Nikkei.