Mumbai, Jun 26 (IANS): Steel companies made hay on Wednesday over signs of easing trade tesnion between the US and China, assisting the Sensex and Nifty to end higher on Wednesday.

Steel companies such as Jindal Steel, Vedanta, JWS Steel and SAIL gained in the range of 4 to 5 per cent on a positive statement by US Treasury Secretary on US-China trade tension.

The Nifty closed 51.10 points higher at 11,847.55 points while the Sensex gained 157.14 points to settle at 39,592.08.

"Stocks from the banking and midcap space witnessed good momentum and have shown outperformance in the last couple of sessions," said Ruchit Jain, Equity Technical Analyst, Angel Broking.

"Along with it, the stocks from the metal space were in limelight today as the Nifty metal index has given a breakout from consolidation phase. We expect the stocks from this sector to participate in the upmove and provide decent returns going ahead," Jain added.