Both Sensex and Nifty rallied to their all-time high in morning trade on fresh buying, mainly in realty, metal, auto, refinery and power sector stocks on persistent foreign capital inflows amid higher Asian cues.

Short-covering ahead of the expiry of futures and options March contract tomorrow also boosted the market.

Tata Steel, which rose 1.54 per cent, said the company had launched the bid-cum-auction process for the sale of its land parcel in Borivali.

The Sensex opened higher at 22,134.71 and rose further to an all-time high of 22,172.10 before quoting at 22,154.79 at 0950 hours, showing a gain of 99.58 points or 0.45 per cent from its last close.

The NSE 50-share Nifty also moved up by 28.30 points or 0.43 per cent to 6,618.05 at 0950 hours after touching all-time high of 6,623.25.

The other gainers were Tata Motors (1.92 per cent), Hindalco Ind (1.53 per cent), Gail India (1.51 per cent), Maruti Suzuki (1.36 per cent), BHEL (1.25 per cent), SSLT (1.14 per cent) and Coal India (1.13 per cent).

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1223.28 crore, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

Asian shares edged higher in their early trade on fresh signs of strength in the US economy and diminishing concerns over the diplomatic standoff between the West and Russia.Key benchmark indices in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia and South Korea rose by 0.27-0.96 per cent, while in China, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.32 per cent.