Benchmark indices failed to build on the opening gains to end marginally higher on Wednesday in the highly volatile market.

Banking stocks remained under pressure, while IT, media, metal, and realty provided support at the lower levels.

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At close, Sensex was up 182.34 points or 0.22% at 81,330.56, and the Nifty was up 88.55 points or 0.36% at 24,666.90.

The mid and small-cap segments continued their outperformance, with the BSE Midcap and Small-cap indices rising by 1.19% and 1.63%, respectively. The cumulative market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms rose to nearly ₹435 lakh crore from ₹431 lakh crore in the previous session.

Further, the volatility index India VIX dropped over 5 per cent to 17.23.

Among the sectors, all major sectoral indices ended higher, except for Nifty Bank, which was down by 0.25%. Financial Services also fell by 0.23%, and Private Bank declined by 0.19%.

Shares of Union Bank of India gained 3% intraday after confidence from brokerages. Power Finance Corporation shares dipped almost 2% in today’s session.

Further, the Nifty Metal index ended as the top gainer among sectoral indices, rising by 2.46%, followed by Realty, up by 1.70%, IT, up by 1.34%, Media, up by 1.27%, and Oil and Gas, up by 1.22%.

On Nifty50, as many as 39 stocks ended with gains. Tata Steel (3.93%), Shriram Finance (2.75%), and Bharat Electronics (2.61%) ended as the top gainers, while Asian Paints (1.66%), Cipla (1.33%), and Kotak Mahindra Bank (1.12%) ended as the top losers.

More than 80 stocks on the BSE tested 52-week high. These included Authum Investment, Hitachi Energy, Aster DM Healthcare, Max Financial, Ceat, Bharat Electronics, Mazagon Dock, Dalmia Bharat, JK Cement, City Union Bank, Bharat Dynamics, APL Apollo, Solar Industries, Godfrey Phillips, and Bharti Hexacom, among others.

Asian Paints’ share price fell 2% following reports that Reliance is considering selling its entire 4.9% stake in the company.

Overnight, US stock indexes rose on news that US consumer inflation picked up less than expected in April when President Donald Trump unveiled a raft of tariffs that wreaked havoc on global markets.

Asian stocks followed the US markets to end mostly higher on Wednesday, while European indices were trading with 0.5% loss.