Mumbai, Mar 13 (Reporter) The BSE Sensex on Thursday jumped 259 pts at 74,289.62 in the opening session as buying was seen across the board. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) rose 60.55 pts at 22,531.05. Sliding 72 pts on Wednesday, the equity market was seen improving as the Sensex registered intra-day highs and lows at 74,401.11 and 74,046.43 pts, respectively. The Nifty registered days high and low at 22,556.00 and 22,460.40 pts respectively. The midcap and small cap rose 0.11 pc each. In 30 scrips, 22 advanced while 8 declined. The gainers were Tata Steel by 1.36 pc to Rs 152.35, SBI by 1.11 pc to Rs 730.95, NTPC by 0.82 pc to Rs 332.80, and ICICI Bank by 0.87 pc to Rs 1253.35. The losers were IndusInd Bank by 1.59 pc to Rs 673.80, Asian paints by 0.34 pc to Rs 2243.40, Ultracemco by 0.31 pc to Rs 10485.70 and Tata Motors by 0.14 pc to Rs 667.50...////...