The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex recovers over 300 points in afternoon trade today after loosing over 486 points in opening trade. The Sensex was trading 18,261, down by over 177 points a short while ago.Brokers said the fall in Sensex is due to after the Japanese Nikkei tumbled by over 10 per cent amid fears of a meltdown at a nuclear power plant. They added overnight losses in the US market also dampened the sentiment.