The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex, which jumped by 262.24 points to 20,669.95 in the opening trade on Wednesday on strong FII inflows, triggered by firming global markets, continues to maintain its uptrend.

At 10.45 a.m., the Sensex was up 155.37 points at 20,563.08 and the broader Nifty was up 45.5 points at 6,191.30.

Volume toppers during the session were Jaiprakash Associates, Tata Steel, RIL, Reliance Infra and BHEL. Major Sensex gainers were RIL, Infosys, ICICI Bank, L&T, HDFC, ITC and HDFC Bank.

Hindalco Industries, Tata Steel and Jaiprakash Associates were the m ajor losers.

Among the sectoral indices, metal was up 1.57%, consumer durables 1.56%, realty 1.29% and PSU 1.01%. Of the total 2,861 stocks traded, 1,967 advanced, 748 declined and 86 remained unchanged.

At the opening session, the 30-share index, which had lost 68.02 points in the previous session, gained 1.28 per cent on the back of surge in metals, realty and oil and gas sector stocks. Besides, all the sectoral indices were trading in green.

Similarly, the broad-based National Stock Exchanges Nifty rose 77.60 points or 1.26 per cent to 6,223.40 points.

Analysts attributed the domestic gains to firming trend in overseas markets, driven by expectations that the US Federal Reserve will take measures to bolster the economy following a interest rate cut by Bank of Japan.