Indian equity benchmarks ended lower for second consecutive session on Wednesday, with Nifty finishing below the 24,400 mark, as selling pressure intensified in Tata Group stocks following N Chandrasekaran’s decision to step down as Tata Sons chairman.

The announcement triggered a sharp selloff across Tata Group stocks, with TCS, Tata Motors, Titan and Tata Steel among the key laggards. TCS fell over 5%, while Tata Motors declined around 3.3% and Titan and Tata Steel slipped more than 2%

The market failed to build on the opening gains and remained under pressure in the first half, dragging the Nifty below 24,300. However, final-hour buying helped the index recover and close above 24,400.

At close, the Sensex was down 187.90 points, or 0.24%, at 77,966.35, while the Nifty fell 35.75 points, or 0.15%, to 24,435.95.

The broader market ended mixed, with the Nifty Midcap 100 rising 0.3%, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 ended marginally lower.

Biggest Nifty losers were TCS, Max Healthcare, Apollo Hospitals, M&M, Tata Steel, while gainers included Hindalco, Bharti Airtel, SBI, Jio Financial, UltraTech Cement.

Among sectors, Nifty PSU Bank rose 2.05%, Nifty Media gained 1.05%, Nifty Bank advanced 0.77% and Nifty Metal added 0.54%. On the other hand, Nifty IT fell 1.54%, India VIX declined 1.43% and Nifty FMCG slipped 0.73%.

More than 160 stocks touched 52-week high including Finolex Cables, Aditya Infotech, Aarti Industries, Apar Industries, Belrise Industries, Bosch, Ather Energy, Sai Life Sciences, Anand Rathi Wealth, Welspun Corp, KEI Industries, Siemens, Dr Lal PathLabs, Pidilite Industries, Divi's Laboratories, Lenskart Solutions and Aether Industries., among others.

Indian rupee ended higher at 95.33 per dollar on Wednesday against Tuesday’s close of 95.44.

Among individual stocks, Marksans Pharma shares gained 11% after the company reported a 169.5% YoY rise in Q1 profit, while Hi-Tech Pipes shares fell 7% as Q1 profit declined 4.2%. Diamond Power Infrastructure shares hit a 52-week high after the company received two orders worth ?195.48 crore.

Godrej Consumer Products shares slipped 10% after Sudhir Sitapati stepped down as MD and CEO.