The Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange jumped 176 points, or 1 per cent, to 17,374 in opening trade, this morning, on fresh buying by funds and retail investors, in line with rising Asian bourses. Later, the Sensex remained firm, and stood 200 points, or 1.2 percent in the green, at 17,397 in afternoon deals, a short while ago.Other Asian markets in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan were up by between 0.5 percent and 2 percent, after strong US economic data.