The Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange, which had opened 153 points lower Thursday morning, later declined more than 200 points in late morning deals. But a fall in the latest food inflation numbers to a single digit helped the Sensex stage a partial recovery, and stand 130 points, or 0.7 percent in the negative zone, at 18,340 in afternoon trade, a short while ago. The market declined as investors booked profits after a two-day rally in which the Sensex had gained 247 points. A weak trend on the other Asian bourses, on concerns over high crude oil prices, also hurt domestic sentiment. Key stock indices in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore,Taiwan, China, South Korea and Indonesia were down by between 0.5 percent and 1.5 percent on Thursday.