Consolidating its initial gains, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange had surged 251 points, or 1.2 percent, to 20,964 in afternoon trade, a short while ago. Earlier in the morning, the Sensex had advanced 68 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 20,781, led by a rally in IT stocks, after encouraging numbers from Infosys. Stock markets in Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan had posted moderate gains of upto 0.6 percent, today. But the US Dow Jones Industrial Average had ended 0.1 per cent lower in yesterday's trade.