The Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange rose 129 points to 17,314 in opening trade, this morning, on sustained buying by funds and retail investors, in line with positive Asian bourses. Later, the Sensex remained firm, and stood 108 points, in positive territory, at 17,293 in afternoon deals, a short while ago.Stock markets in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and China were up by between 0.3 percent and 1.5 percent, today, after strong US housing data, and largely reassuring comments from US central bank chairman Ben Bernanke. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average had ended 0.8 per cent higher in yesterday's trade.