Rising for the third straight session, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange rose 131 points, or 0.8 percent, to 17,432, today, on sustained buying by investors, as Asian markets posted good gains. The Sensex had climbed more than 430 points in the past two trading sessions. The Nifty at the National Stock Exchange advanced 34 points, or 0.7 percent, to 5,270. Stock markets in Japan, China, Hong Kong and South Korea rallied between 0.8 percent and 2 percent, on encouraging global economic data.