The Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange gained 119 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 17,626 in early trade, today, on bargain hunting by investors, amid a firm trend on the other Asian bourses. Later, after briefly slipping into the red, the Sensex quickly regained strength, and was trading a good 170 points, or 1 percent higher, at 17,677, in afternoon deals, a short while ago. The 30-share Sensex has lost more than 800 points in the past four trading sessions. Elsewhere in Asia, key stock indices in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan were up by between 0.8 percent and 1.5 percent, today. Over in the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had ended 0.6 per cent higher, overnight.