The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), today crawled up around 80 points during noon on the back of strong signals from other Asian bourses.

The Sensex had hit 18,167.22 during morning, but dropped slightly in following sessions, with heavyweight Infosys dragging the stock index.

The Sensex, which belled the day at 18,024.95, was trading 79.41 points up at 18,065.31 as against its previous close at 17,985.9.

At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broad-based Nifty stood at 5,422.35, up 0.4% as compared to its last closure at 5,400.65.

The BSE midcap index gained 0.22% and the BSE smallcap index 0.49% up.

Capital goods, consumer durables and banking scrips remained top gainers, whereas IT and telecom stocks witnessed huge selling pressure.

The overall breadth of the stock market remained optimistic with 1,573 scrips progressing as against 1,291 declinations.

Other major Asian bourses were also growing on account of a strong beginning to the US earnings season on Tuesday.

The Japanese Nikkei ended at 9,795.24, up 2.71% points, with technology shares rallying after Intel's results beat market projections.

The South Korean Kospi closed 1.32% up at 1,758.01.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng also remained positive as it gained 0.51% at 20,535.13, whereas the Chinese Shanghai Composite index ended the day 0.82% up at 2,470.44.