Domestic stocks ended with strong gains, mirroring strength in other global stocks amid signs that US-China trade relations could be improving. Metal and mining stocks gained. Shares of index heavyweights, Reliance Industries, Infosys and HDFC Bank edged higher. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. The Nifty crossed 10,700 mark in late trade.

The market opened higher and hit fresh intraday high in morning trade. Indices came off day's high in mid-morning trade and they further pared gains in early afternoon trade. After firming up once again in afternoon trade, indices failed to cross the day's high level and they pared gains in mid-afternoon trade. Fresh buying catapulted shares to fresh intraday high in late trade.

The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, surged 403.65 points or 1.14% to settle at 35,756.26. The index hit high of 35,797.11 and low of 35,469.49 in intraday trade.

The Nifty 50 index surged 131.10 points or 1.24% to settle at 10,735.45. The index hit high of 10,752.70 and low of 10,646.40 in intraday trade.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.91%. The BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.84%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1496 shares rose and 1110 shares fell. A total of 160 shares were unchanged.

Among the sectoral indices on BSE, the S&P BSE Basic Materials index (up 2.24%), the S&P BSE Metal index (up 2.99%), the S&P BSE Oil & Gas index (up 2.19%) outperformed the Sensex. The S&P BSE Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services index (up 0.69%), the S&P BSE FMCG index (up 0.23%), the S&P BSE Healthcare index (up 0.48%) underperformed the Sensex.

Among index heavyweights, Reliance Industries (up 1.48%), Infosys (up 2.05%) and HDFC Bank (up 1.07%) edged higher.

ONGC (up 3.63%), NTPC (up 2.85%), Yes Bank (up 2.57%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 1.89%) and Bharti Airtel (up 1.74%) were the major Sensex gainers.

Hero MotoCorp (down 0.56%), Hindustan Unilever (down 0.3%) and Bajaj Auto (down 0.16%) were the major Sensex losers.

HCL Technologies rose 1.59%. HCL Technologies (HCL) today announced it has won a five year IT infrastructure and application services contract with EDF Luminus, the second largest electricity producer and energy supplier in the Belgian energy market. HCL will help EDF Luminus to transform and modernize its IT infrastructure, applications landscape and will migrate its SAP portfolio to a public cloud environment. The announcement was made during market hours today, 20 February 2019.

EDF Luminus is a subsidiary of Electricité de France (EDF). The deal marks a significant win for HCL in Belgium, and will see it taking the responsibility for migrating all EDF Luminus' SAP applications to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. HCL will also provide integrated Cloud and Data Center services, Non- SAP Application management including infrastructure support, end-to-end network and security services, as well as Service Integration and Management (SIAM).

Metal and mining stocks gained. JSW Steel (up 3.68%), Tata Steel (up 4.13%), Steel Authority of India (Sail) (up 3.79%), Hindustan Zinc (up 2.06%), Jindal Steel & Power (up 6.12%), Hindalco Industries (up 3.38%), NMDC (up 1.13%), Hindustan Copper (up 0.68%) edged higher. National Aluminium Company (down 2.26%) fell.

Vedanta rose 4.67%. The company termed reports of alleged discussions between Vedanta and JSW Steel for a possible last-minute joint bid for Essar Steel as speculative and baseless. The company confirms categorically that it is not in the process of submitting any revised bid for Essar Steel under the IBC process as mentioned in the articles, Vedanta said. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 19 February 2019.

Majesco rose 3.32%. The company announced that American Public Life Insurance Company (APL) selected Majesco L&A and Group Core Suite platform as the foundation of its digital business transformation strategy. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 19 February 2019.

Essel Propack lost 4.79%. The company has further received Rs 40 crore towards repayment of outstanding dues of Inter corporate deposit. Essel has already received Rs 25.30 crore in last month. The balance amount is expected to be received by March 2019. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 19 February 2019.

Overseas, shares in Europe and Asia edged higher Wednesday, amid rising hopes the world's two largest economies could soon secure a trade deal to end a protracted dispute.

Representatives from the US and China are meeting in Washington this week to resume trade negotiations, with high level discussions set to happen later in the week, the White House said Monday. US is reportedly seeking to secure a pledge from China that it will not devalue its yuan currency as part of a trade deal.

Japan's trade deficit expanded in January. The value of Japan's January exports fell by a faster-than-expected 8.4% from a year ago to 5.574 trillion yen, a two-year-low, according to data released by the country's finance ministry on Wednesday. The country logged its fourth straight monthly trade deficit, which grew by almost 50% to Y1.415 trillion. However, Japan's trade surplus with US increased 5.1% on year to Y367.4 billion in January. Japan's overall imports also fell by 0.6%, the ministry said.

Investors awaited the release later on Wednesday of minutes from the US Federal Reserve's January policy-setting meeting, where policymakers took a dovish turn, effectively signaling no further rate hikes.

US stock indices held steady above the break-even line after opening lower on Tuesday. US President Donald Trump reportedly said Tuesday that trade talks with China are going well, adding the current March deadline is not a magical date. Both countries have until then to come up with a deal. Otherwise, additional US tariffs on Chinese products could take effect. Trump indicated last week, however, he would be willing to push back the deadline.

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