Mumbai, Aug 14 (IANS): Stock markets globally saw major recovery on Wednesday after the US surprisingly put on hold the 10 per cent import tariff on Chinese products it had announced earlier, which had ever since roiled the global financial markets.

Sensex surged as much as 515 points before settling 353.37 points higher at 37,311.53. The broader Nifty jumped by 103.55 points, or 0.95 per cent, to 11,029.40. The rupee also gained 12 paise against the US dollar to close at Rs 71.27 per dollar.

A sharp fall in prices of safe-haven assets like gold was also seen. The prices of the precious metal had jumped significantly over the escalation of the trade tension.

"Nifty rose on Wednesday, pulled up by gains in cyclicals including metals, cement, auto, oil & gas and select financials. Delaying of tariffs on some Chinese imports by the US has raised hopes of improvement in the economic growth scenario globally," said Deepak Jasani of HDFC Securities.

"Select pharma stocks came under profit post their results announcements and regulatory development," he added.

After opening strongly in the positive, the Asian markets gave up some of their gains after China reported weak factory data.

Growth of China's industrial output slowed much more than expected to 4.8 per cent in July from a year earlier.

European markets, however, opened lower after a contraction for the export-reliant German economy in the second quarter.