Sensex closes 199 points higher, auto and pharma stocks gain

Equity benchmark indices scaled fresh new highs on Wednesday and ended half a per cent higher due to heavy buying in auto, metal and pharma stocks.

The bull run continued amid positive underlying sentiment and optimism surrounding the signing of US-China trade deal's first phase.

The BSE S & P Sensex closed 199 points higher at 41,021 while the Nifty 50 edged up by 63 points to 12,101. Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green except for Nifty media and realty.

Nifty auto ticked up by 1.27 per cent, PSU bank by 1.77 per cent and pharma by 0.83 per cent. But Nifty realty and media closed 0.65 per cent and 0.39 per cent lower respectively.

Among stocks, Yes Bank added intraday gain of 8.31 per cent to close at Rs 68.40 per share after the private lender offloaded shares of Reliance Capital for the third consecutive session on Tuesday through an open market transaction. Besides, the bank's board of directors will meet on Friday to consider raising of funds.

Maruti Suzuki gained by 2.4 per cent while Eicher Motors, Hero MotoCorp, TVS Motor Company and Bajaj Auto were up in the range of 1 to 2 per cent each.

State Bank of India was up by 2.8 per cent, Hindalco by 2.2 per cent and Sun Pharma by 1.9 per cent. UltraTech Cement, UPL, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, ONGC and Coal India also witnessed gains of over 1.7 per cent.

However, the prominent losers were Bharti Infratel, Cipla, Larsen & Toubro, ITC and ICICI Bank.

Meanwhile, Asian shares rose as upbeat signals from US-China trade talks generated hopes of an easing of tariff hostilities. At the same time, investors hoped that the US Federal Reserve will keep interest rates low.

Japan's Nikkei rose by 0.28 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng by 0.15 per cent and South Korea's Kospi by 0.31 per cent.

But Shanghai Composite dropped by 0.13 per cent after official data showed profits at China's industrial firms declining in annual terms for the third consecutive month during October.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the United States and China are close to agreement on the first phase of a trade deal. Top negotiators from the two countries spoke on phone and agreed to keep working on the remaining issues.