Paring its initial gains, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange still stood a good 285 points, or 1.4 percent in positive territory, at 20,993 in afternoon trade, a short while ago. Earlier in the morning, the Sensex had shot up 440 points, or 2.1 per cent, to regain the psychological 21,000-mark, at 21,148, on strong buying by funds. The 30-share Sensex had lost 189 points in the previous two trading sessions. But stock markets in Japan, China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan had lost between 0.1 percent and 1 percent, today, after strong US economic data triggered speculation that the Federal Reserve may start winding-up its monetary stimulus for the US economy relatively soon. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average had closed 0.2 per cent lower in yesterday's trade.