Sensex bucks global trend, gains 251 pts Short covering helped Indian stock markets buck the slide, as the Asian and European markets were hit by renewed concerns on subprime mortgage forcing some of the biggest Wall Street banks, including Citigroup, to report lower profits.

On a day of choppy trades, the Sensex closed 251 points up (1.28 per cent) to settle at 19,976.23, after opening lower by more than 400 points.

A day after the broader S&P CNX Nifty peaked 6,000-mark during intra-day trades, the 50-stock index ended 1.12 per cent higher at 5,932.40 points.

Dealers said some foreign institutional investors were under redemption pressure to maintain their net asset values (NAVs), which triggered a sell-off in almost all sectors.

Some hedge funds, which have now been given 18 months to unwind their P-Note (participatory note) positions, were also in a mood to sell.

Globally, Dow Jones and Nasdaq closed lower on Thursday on concerns that losses from the US subprime mortgage will deepen. Asian indices followed the suit and Japan’s Nikkei ended 352 points lower followed by Kospi and Taiwan index, down 43.80 and 325.14 points, respectively.

US crude hovered near $93.60 a barrel, after sliding from an all-time high of $96.24 as concerns about the US economy weighed, while gold notched up to $791.60 an ounce, keeping within sight of a 28-year peak near $800.

The markets opened with a negative gap of 365 points but recovered almost 100 points during mid-afternoon trades and was hovering at 19,511. However, it bounced back in late afternoon and even crossed 20,000 during intra-day trades on huge short covering.

Almost all the sectors were in positive territory by the end of Friday’s trading session. The banking index was the biggest gainer, shooting up 3.59 per cent due to heavy buying seen in State Bank of India after Bloomberg reported that the state-owned bank got government approval for a rights issue.

SBI surged 8.74 per cent to Rs 2,251.75, HDFC Bank ended 5 per cent higher at Rs 1,758.75, Reliance Energy shot up 4.78 per cent to Rs 1,852.35 and ONGC rose 2.70 per cent to Rs 1,366.10.

Sunil Mittal-controlled Bharti Airtel dropped 5 per cent to Rs 894.85 on concerns that proposed new rules for allocation of spectrum will hurt its growth prospects. ACC tumbled 1.90 per cent to Rs 1,032.55, Satyam Computer 1.87 per cent to Rs 462 and Cipla 1.39 per cent to Rs 173.60.

Almost half of the stocks advanced at BSE.