Key Indian stock indices traded resolutely higher on Thursday, September 26, in sync with Asian equities, drawing support from recent comments by the US President. Specifically, Donald Trump switched his narrative about China, saying that the US and China might be able to strike a trade deal sooner than expected. Notably, Trump cited China’s large purchases of US agricultural products. Today’s gains were led by automotive and metals stocks. Adding to upbeat sentiment, gold prices rose by the close of the Asian session. Recapping the benchmarks, the Nifty 50 increased 1.15% to 11,571.20, and the BSE Sensex advanced 1.03% to 38,989.74. The USD/INR pair weakened 0.11% to 70.895. The 10-year Indian government bond yield narrowed 0.44% to 6.724%. In the blue-chip universe, the likes of ICICI Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Vedanta surged over 4%, while Yes Bank and Infosys shed more than 1%. Mining conglomerate Vedanta outperformed the broader market, spiking 6.5%. In the O&G sector, Hindustan Petroleum soared 6.2%, while ONGC added 3.9%. Yes Bank, which asked the Reserve Bank of India’s approval to increase the bank's authorized share capital, retreated 4.9%. From a technical standpoint, the daily chart shows that the BSE Sensex has broken through a descending band and formed a flag pattern. As a result, the benchmark will likely see a new uptrend in the short term.