At the stock markets, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange opened strongly higher, and after consolidating initial gains, had surged a good 259 points, or 0.9 percent, to 30,193 a short while ago. Earlier, in the morning, the Sensex had hit an all-time high of 30,198. The Nifty at the National Stock Exchange had jumped 69 points, to 9,386. Earlier, Nifty had touched a life time peak of 9,390. Stocks rose on broad-based buying, spurred by the forecast of a normal monsoon.