The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex rose by 158 points in opening trade today on buying by funds driven by strong global cues.Sensex was trading at 17319, up by 1310 points when reports last came in. Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty surged by over 35 points to 5,169 points.The Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1.80 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei gained 1.50 per cent in the morning trade. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.67 per cent higher yesterday.