Strength in metals and select bluechip stocks pushed the key benchmark index to a 22-month closing high on Tuesday.

The Sensex rose 127 points to 17,686 and the Nifty advanced 0.8 per cent to 5,277.

Metal stocks rose sharply today, driven by higher global commodities prices. The BSE metal index soared 3.8 per cent. Nalco zoomed nearly 15 per cent to Rs 505 and JSW Steel gained 10.8 per cent.

Realty stocks also gained today. The realty index on the BSE rose 1.1 per cent. Kolte-Patil Developers surged 6.7 per cent and Parsvnath Developers closed up 5 per cent.

In the Sensex pack, Hindalco was the biggest gainer. The stock shot up 7.4 per cent to Rs 175. JP Associates rose 5.8 per cent and Sterlite Ind was up 4.5 per cent.

Maruti Suzuki, however, fell 2.2 per cent to finish at Rs 1,515. Tata Motors also dropped 2 per cent. ACC and NTPC also shed over 1 per cent each.

Asian stock markets gained more ground on Tuesday, following Wall Street’s advance as an upbeat US manufacturing report buoyed investor confidence in a global recovery. European shares slipped in early trade.

Most major Asian markets were higher for a second straight session, while the dollar fell against the yen and the euro. Crude oil prices closed in on $82 a barrel.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 stock average added 27.04 points, or 0.3 percent, to 10,681.83, its advance curtailed in the afternoon session on selling of exporters as the yen climbed again the dollar.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 456.30, or 2.1 percent, to 22,279.58.

Elsewhere, Shanghai’s main stock measure climbed 1.2 percent to 3,282.18 after falling the day before. Australia’s market was up 1 percent, helped by stronger commodity prices.

Burdened by debt and a devastating real estate crash, Dubai is doing what it does best: doubling down.

Just one month after a close brush with bankruptcy, Dubai celebrated the opening of the world’s tallest building on Monday – a rocket-shaped edifice that soars 2,717 feet and has views that reach 60 miles.

The glittering celebration may have been an attempt by Dubai’s ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, to shift the focus from Dubai’s current economic troubles to a future filled with more promise.

All the same, the tower’s success by no means signals a recovery in Dubai’s beaten-down real estate market, where prices have collapsed by as much as 50 percent and many developers are having trouble finding occupants for their buildings.

With its mix of nightclubs, mosques, luxury suites and boardrooms, the Burj is an almost perfect representation of Dubai’s own complexities and contradictions. It will have the world’s first Armani hotel; the world’s highest swimming pool, on the 76th floor; the highest observation deck, on the 124th floor; and the highest mosque, on the 158th floor.

But in deciding to change the tower’s name from Burj Dubai to Burj Khalifa, in honor of the president of Abu Dhabi, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Dubai revealed a rare streak of humility consistent with its diminished economic condition.

Once the most proudly autonomous of the United Arab Emirates, Dubai has found that its financial troubles have made it more dependent on Abu Dhabi and more likely to be drawn closer into the federation.

“Dubai not only has the world’s tallest building, but has also made what looks like the most expensive naming rights deal in history,” said Jim Krane, the author of “City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism.” “Renaming the Burj Dubai after Sheik Khalifa of Abu Dhabi – if not an explicit quid pro quo – is a down payment on Dubai’s gratitude for its neighbor’s $10 billion bailout last month.”

The opening festivities had the feel of a national holiday, with fireworks, parachute jumps and shooting streams of water from the world’s tallest fountain.

At a cost estimated at $1.5 billion, the Burj took five years to build, is more than 160 floors high and has comfortably surpassed the previous record holder in Taiwan, the Taipei 101.