It was roll a coster ride for the markets as they ended with hefty gain after opening with a sharp cut in rednot only recovered the losses but also made good gains. Sensex hit the 20,000 level again but ended marginally below that mark. Nifty which had slipped below 5700 levels clawed back in the final hour and ended above 5900 level. Short covering can also be attributed to the gains.

The cues from Asia and US were extremely weak, but the markets have shown resilience once again outperforming all Asian peers and ending near the day''s high. Initially markets have taken cues from the fall in US on account of credit concerns. Hang Seng was down 1000 points or 3%

Among the leaders, SBI was up over 5%, Tata Power up over 4%, Reliance Energy is up over 3.5% and HDFC Bank up over 2%.

All the key BSE indices are in green, BSE bank, FMCG and power stocks were among the top losers. BSE midcap and smallcap index have outperformed . This has given markets a positive breadth.

Bharti Airtel, GAIL, Wipro, ICICI Bank, Hindalco, SAIL were trading weak on the bourses.

On the macroeconomic front, inflation came in at 3.02% versus 3.07%, which is inline with the market estimates.