Indian equity benchmarks lost all early gains in highly volatile trade on Wednesday, with the Sensex falling 109.94 points following a mixed trend in global markets.

The BSE Sensex closed 109.94 points or 0.20% lower at 54,208.53. During the day, it touched a high of 54,786 and a low of 54,130.89.

The broader NSE Nifty slipped 19 points or 0.12% to close at 16,240.30.

On the sectoral front, FMCG and pharma ended higher, while selling was seen in the bank, capital goods, realty, IT, metal PSU Bank and oil gas indices.

Major laggards from the Sensex pack were Power Grid Corp down by 4.55%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.14%, SBI down by 2.01%, Larsen down by 1.92%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.66%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.63%, NTPC down by 1.46% and Wipro down by 1.14%.

Among the gainers were Hindustan Unilever up by 2.02%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.98%, Asian Paints up by 1.65%, Sun Pharma up by 0.78%, ITC up by 0.72% and Axis Bank up by 0.67%.

Rupee settled flat at 77.58 per US dollar against Tuesday’s close of 77.56.

Asian markets settled on a mixed note, with Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo finishing in the green, while Shanghai settled lower.

European stock exchanges were also trading on a mixed note in the afternoon session.

US stock exchanges had closed significantly higher on Tuesday.

“With the support from Pharma and FMCG stocks, the domestic market had a steady run until the weak opening of the European market. UK’s soaring retail inflation number along with Fed Chair’s reassurance on bringing down the inflation, disturbed the sentiment, risking sharper rate hikes,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Brent crude, the international oil benchmark surged 1.13% to USD 113.2 per barrel.

According to stock exchange data, foreign institutional investors sold shares worth a net Rs 2,192.44 crore on Tuesday.