Mumbai: Continuing with its upward march, the benchmark Sensex rose by more than 79 points in early trading today on the back of sustained buying by funds as well as retail investors in blue-chip stocks.

The BSE-30 share index, Sensex, climbed by 79.84 points to hit a new high of 13,505.34 points in the first five minutes of trading.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index, Nifty was up by 22.90 points at record high of 3,888.80.

Marketmen said buying by foreign funds was mostly triggered by firming global markets.

They said technology sector stocks remained at the centre of brisk activity on expectations that weakening rupee against the US dollar would boost earnings.

Major contributers to the rise in the Sensex were Infosys Technologies, Tata Consultancy, Wipro, Satyam Computers, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Udyog, HDFC Ltd, Reliance Industries, BHEL, Ranbaxy Lab, Reliance Communications, State Bank of India and Larsen and Toubro.