Staging a smart recovery from initial losses, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange had surged 299 points, or 1.7 percent, to 18,205 in afternoon trade, a short while ago. Earlier in the morning, however, the Sensex had opened with a loss of 76 points, or 0.4 percent, at 17,830, on continued selling, as the rupee plunged to a new record low against the dollar, and as other Asian markets fell. The Sensex has lost over 1,460 points in the previous four trading sessions. Stock markets in Japan, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia and South Korea were down by between 0.2 percent and 2 percent, today, after minutes of the US Federal Reserve's last meeting signaled that the US central bank was on course to pare bond purchases this year. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average had ended 0.7 per cent lower in yesterday's trade.