Maintaining its initial gains, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange had rallied 264 points, or 1.3 percent, to 20,459 in afternoon trade, a short while ago. Earlier in the morning, the Sensex had jumped 260 points, or 1.3 per cent, to 20,455, on fresh buying by investors, driven by some encouraging corporate earnings and firm Asian Bourses. The Sensex had lost almost 1,050 points in the previous seven trading sessions. Stock markets in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea had gained between 0.2 percent and 2.1 percent, today, after US Federal Reserve chairman-nominee, Janet Yellen suggested that any scaling back of the monetary stimulus might not be right around the corner. Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average had closed 0.5 per cent higher in yesterday's trade.