Buy or sell stocks, May 22 -- After a strong start, the Indian stock market indices extended their early morning gains but soon came under sell-off pressure at higher levels in the second half of Wednesday. However, the key benchmark indices managed to end higher despite losing most of their morning gains. The Nifty 50 index finished 129 points higher at 24,813. The BSE Sensex gained 410 points and closed at 81,596. The Bank Nifty index added 197 points and regained the 55,000 peak.

All the sectors ended the day in green, with realty and pharma being the top performers. In the broader market, there was a mixed performance, as Midcaps slightly outperformed, whereas Smallcaps underperformed the key benchmark indices.

Vaishali Parekh, Vice...