Paring most of its initial gains, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange stood 18 points, or 0.1 percent in positive territory, at 18,538 in afternoon trade, a short while ago. Earlier in the morning, the Sensex had opened with a bigger gain of 144 points, or 0.8 percent, at 18,663, on expectations that the government will take steps to attract capital flows to fund the current account deficit, and on firm regional bourses. The Sensex had climbed over 610 points in the previous two trading sessions. Stock markets in China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea were up by between 0.1 percent and 1.9 percent, today.