The Bombay Stocks exchange benchmark Sensex rose by nearly 172 points to 17,472 in early trade today. It was trading at 17,457, up by 156 points up a short while ago. The rise in Sensex is on the back of buying by funds and retail investors. It is also driven by encouraging quarterly earnings by corporate and firming trend on the other Asian bourses.The wide-based National Stock Exchange Nifty Index moved up by 44 points to 5,280 points. 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.