The Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange, which had opened 68 points higher, this morning, later stood 48 points, or 0.3 percent in the green, at 19,740, in afternoon trade, a short while ago. Short-covering by speculators, ahead of tomorrow's monthly expiry in the derivatives segment helped support the market. Stock markets in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea were trading mixed, today. But in the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had slipped 1.3 per cent, overnight.