The BSE benchmark Sensex, which declined by nearly 80 points in early trade today, recovered some ground and was trading 15 points in the negative territory at 16,723 in afternoon trade.The Sensex had gained over 285 points in the previous two sessions.In a similar fashion, the wide-based National Stock Exchange Nifty index was trading down by 5 points at 5,043.In the Asia region, Japan's Nikkei Index down by 0.14 per cent in early trade today.