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(AP) -- STEVENSON JACOBS, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Goldman Sachs executives are emerging mostly unscathed from a Senate grilling. The company's stock is doing even better.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has outperformed most other stocks Tuesday as a Senate subcommittee questioned Goldman employees about complex mortgage deals that led to government civil fraud charges. The stock rose as much as $4.16 before pulling back to close at $153.04, up $1.01, or 0.7 percent. Still, it was the only major banking stock to end higher amid a market plunge.

Some analysts see Goldman's stock rally as a sign that the bank had the upper hand during senators' confrontational, five-hour questioning of four current and former Goldman employees. One of those employees was Fabrice Tourre, the trader charged along with Goldman in the government's fraud case.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: Read earlier version below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Goldman Sachs trading executive on Tuesday challenged the government's fraud allegations against the company and himself, asserting to lawmakers, "I did not mislead."

Fabrice Tourre said in prepared testimony that he does not recall telling investors that a Goldman hedge fund client had bought into an investment that soured. Instead, the hedge fund, Paulson & Co., bet against the security — and profited handsomely.

He was one of several Goldman officials to appear before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in its probe into the Securities and Exchange Commission civil fraud case against the giant investment house.

The hearing comes as the Senate grapples with Democratic-sponsored legislation to overhaul the nation's financial regulation system. Republicans on Monday blocked the Senate from taking up the measures, but Democrats are vowing to try again.

Tourre disputed the government's allegation that the Goldman security at the heart of the inquiry was secretly designed to fail. In his prepared testimony, he said, "I deny — categorically — the SEC's allegation. And I will defend myself in court."

Ten days after the SEC action, the Senate panel is looking into allegations that Goldman used a strategy that allowed it to profit from the housing meltdown and reap billions at the expense of clients.

(Copyright ©2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)