The Indian stock benchmarks staged a strong recovery from intraday low levels to settle on a flat note on Wednesday. The benchmarks declined soon after opening higher wherein the Sensex fell as much as 592 points from the day's highest level and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 16,162 after hitting a high of 16,338.75. Buying interest in metal stocks like Hindalco, Vedanta, Tata Steel and index and Reliance Industries helped benchmarks recover from intraday low levels.

At close, The Sensex declined 29 points to close at 54,526 and the Nifty 50 index ended 2 points higher at 16,282. Eleven of 15 sector gauges compiled by the NSE ended lower led by the Nifty Pharma index's 1.2 percent decline. Nifty Private Bank, Healthcare, Bank and Financial Services indices also SETTLED with a negative bias.

conversely, Metal stocks seen strong buying interest as the Nifty Metal index surged 3 percent. Oil and Gas, PSU Bank and Realty shares also witnessed buying interest. Mid-Ca[p and small-cap shares ended mixed as the Nifty Midcap-100 index ended flat while Nifty Smallcap-100 index declined nearly 1 percent.

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