MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex rose by over 137 points in opening trade on fresh buying by funds and retail investors in select stocks amid a firming trend on other Asian bourses. Covering up of pending short positions by speculators prior to monthly expiry in the derivatives segment on the National Stock Exchange today also supported the recovery in stock prices. The 30-share barometer, which lost 164.73 points in yesterday's trade, recovered by 137.70 points, or 0.77 per cent, to 17,984.94 in the first few minutes of trade today. Stocks of metals, oil and gas, banking and auto companies led the recovery. In a similar manner, the wide-based National Stock Exchange Nifty index rose by 32.40 points to 5,381.35 points. Brokers said the emergence of buying, triggered by a better trend on other Asian bourses in line with overnight gains in the US market, mainly buoyed the trading sentiment here. Encouraging quarterly earnings by Tata Steel also had a positive impact, they said. Stocks of steel major Tata Steel surged by 3.14 per cent to Rs 579.15 after the company reported a 71.61 per cent jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 4,177.14 crore for the quarter ended March, 2011. In the Asian region, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up by 0.50 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei gained 1.44 per cent in morning trade today. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.31 per cent higher in yesterday's trade.