The market stumbled into the negative territory in early noon trades and remained weak thereafter.
The index steadily slipped below the 6,300-mark, and touched a low of 6,252 on strong selling pressure in select old and new economy stocks.
The Sensex finally ended 55 points down at 6,261. The Nifty lost 17 points to close at 1,976.
Reliance dropped 1.85% (Rs 10) to Rs 508. HLL declined 1.75% (Rs 3) to Rs 152, after rising sharply in recent trades. ITC was down a per cent (Rs 10) at Rs 1,267.
Wipro declined 2.41% (Rs 18) to Rs 739. While Satyam slipped 1.76% (Rs 7) to Rs 403, Infosys was down Rs 8 at Rs 2,031.
HDFC Bank shed nearly 2% (Rs 9) to Rs 472, and ICICI Bank declined 1.69% (Rs 6) to Rs 358. SBI, however, firm with a gain of 3.91% (Rs 22) at Rs 593.
Bajaj lost 1.88% (Rs 19) to Rs 1,020. While Tata Motors shed nearly 2% (Rs 10) to Rs 483, Maruti dipped 1.41% (Rs 6) to Rs 425. Hero Honda, however, ended marginally higher at Rs 491.
Reliance Energy slumped 2% (Rs 11) to Rs 548. While BHEL slipped 1.11% (Rs 7) to Rs 652. Tata Power is down 1.27% (Rs 4) at Rs 341.
Tisco shed 2.59% (Rs 8) to Rs 318. While HPCL dropped 2.46% (Rs 9) to Rs 374, ONGC was down Rs 3 at Rs 831.
Bharti, however, was the biggest gainer amongst the Sensex stocks, and advanced nearly 6% (Rs 10) to Rs 188.