The Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange rose 88 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 18,345 in early trade, today, amid strong Asian markets. Climbing further, the Sensex stood 156 points, or 0.9 percent in the green, at 18,413, a short while ago. The Nifty at the National Stock Exchange rallied 44 points, or 0.8 percent, to regain the psychologically important 5,500- point level after a gap of 30 months, at 5,524. Stock markets in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China were up by between 0.1 percent and 1.3 percent.