Mumbai, December 18: Equity markets on Wednesday closed higher for the second day in a row, ahead of the GST Council meeting later in the day. Both the Sensex and Nifty surged to new high and closed with gains of 0.5 per cent each at 41,559 and 12,222 levels. However, broader markets underperformed the benchmarks with Nifty mid-cap and Nifty small-cap were down 0.3 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively. All the sectors closed in green except PSU banks and media. Pharma index was the top gainer with gains of 1.2 per cent, followed by metals.