The Sensex pared losses to provisionally end higher, led by a recovery in blue-chip shares such as Reliance Industries while bank shares such as State Bank of India gained on hopes of government capital infusion.
Reliance Industries shares ended 2.33 percent higher while SBI added 1.53 percent.
The Sensex provisionally rose 0.34 percent, while the Nifty added 0.44 percent.