The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 19 points at 6,896, but soon touched a high of 6,955 in early deals.
Selling at higher levels saw the index drop into negative zone, and dipped to a low of 6,843 points by noon.
A brief rally, led by pharma scrips like Cipla and Ranbaxy, saw the index move into the green towards the closing bell before renewed selling pulled it down again. The Sensex finally closed the day with a loss of 22 points at 6,893.
The Nifty was down 8 points at 2,161.
While 21 index scrips declined with a volume of 1.22 crore shares totalling Rs 657 crore, nine advanced with a volume of 51 lakh shares for Rs 252 crore.
Reliance, which was firm right through the session, dropped towards the closing bell and finished with a loss of over Rs 3 at Rs 587.
Infosys was down Rs 13 at Rs 2,251. While ITC declined Rs 10 to Rs 1,372, HLL was down Rs 2 at Rs 144. SBI slipped Rs 3 to Rs 721.
ONGC, however, moved up Rs 10 to Rs 912.
BHEL dropped 1.6% (Rs 13) to Rs 826. HPCL, Hindalco, ICICI Bank, Wipro and Tisco also declined.
Tata Motors dropped nearly 3% (Rs 14) to Rs 468. Maruti and Hero Honda also declined, but Bajaj was up Rs 8 at Rs 1,096.
Cipla zoomed over 8% (Rs 23) to Rs 295. Ranbaxy advanced nearly 3% (Rs 31) to Rs 1,088. Dr. Reddy's was up Rs 5 at Rs 751.
Grasim gained 1.6% (Rs 21) to Rs 1,384. While HDFC was up nearly a per cent (Rs 8) at Rs 801, HDFC Bank was up Rs 3 at Rs 618.
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