The Sensex and the Nifty further extended gains and hit fresh intraday high in early afternoon trade. At 12:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 297.35 points or 0.84% at 35,810.49. The Nifty 50 index was up 65.55 points or 0.61% at 10,751.15. Positive cues from other Asian shares boosted investors sentiment. Most realty and metal shares witnessed selling pressure.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.12%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.14%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned negative. On BSE, 1121 shares rose and 1189 shares fell. A total of 143 shares were unchanged.

Most realty shares declined. Indiabulls Real Estate (down 3.65%), Sunteck Realty (down 3.36%), Godrej Properties (down 3.18%), D B Realty (down 2.48%), DLF (down 2.19%), Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) (down 1.89%), Parsvnath Developers (down 1.68%), Phoenix Mills (down 1.2%), Anant Raj (down 0.87%), Mahindra Lifespace Developers (down 0.56%), Sobha (down 0.55%), Oberoi Realty (down 0.35%) and Omaxe (down 0.02%), edged lower. Peninsula Land (up 0.65%), Unitech (up 0.94%) and Prestige Estates Projects (up 2.50%), edged higher.

Most metal shares slipped. Jindal Steel & Power (down 0.96%), Hindustan Zinc (down 0.79%), JSW Steel (down 0.71%), Hindustan Copper (down 0.51%), NMDC (down 0.48%), Steel Authority of India (down 0.35%) and Hindalco Industries (down 0.2%), edged lower. Tata Steel (up 0.07%), Vedanta (up 0.38%) and National Aluminium Company (up 0.85%), edged higher.

Yes Bank fell 6.31% after a rating agency downgraded the bank's foreign currency issuer rating and changed outlook to negative. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 November 2018.

The bank's foreign currency issuer ratings have been downgraded to Ba1 from Baa3 by Moody's Investors Service. The outlook, where applicable, has been changed to negative from stable. At the same time, Moody's has affirmed the bank's counterparty risk assessment (CR Assessment) of Baa3(cr)/ P-3(cr) and domestic and foreign currency counterparty risk rating (CRR) of Baa3/ P-3.

On the political front, state assembly elections will be closely watched. Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram were underway today, 28 November 2018. Polling in Rajasthan and Telangana will be held on 7 December 2018. The election to the 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly was held in two phases 12 and 20 November 2018. Counting of votes will be held across all the five states on 11 December 2018.

Overseas, Asian shares were trading higher on Wednesday as investors wait for an important meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this week. The two leaders are expected to talk trade after Washington and Beijing applied additional tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of each other's imports. Those moves prompted concerns about slowing global economic growth.

US stocks bounced back from early losses to close higher Tuesday as gains in so-called defensive sectors helped to offset anxieties that a near-term resolution to trade tensions between the US and China remain elusive.

On the US data front, home prices across the country are rising at the slowest pace in nearly two years, according to the S&P/Case-Chiller 20-city Index.