The Sensex opened six points higher at 6,595, and surged to an intra-day high of 6,643 on strong early buying support in old economy stocks.
The gains of the index steadily declined as the trading progressed and moved in a narrow range of 20-30 points gains till the mid-noon trades.
The markets witnessed a sharp turnaround towards the closing hours as the resumption of selling pressure in most of the counters saw the index slip below the 6,600 mark to touch an intra-day low of 6,564.
Though the Sensex came close to sign-off the week on a positive note towards the fag-end, it eventually ended five points lower at 6,584.
The Nifty, too, slipped from higher levels to end with a loss of six points at 2,056.
While 10 Sensex stocks advanced, 20 declined today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 64 lakh for Rs 243.86 crore, and declining shares registered a volume of 80 lakh amounting to Rs 451.03 crore.
ITC shed more ground towards the closing hours and dropped 1.61% (Rs 21) to Rs 1,278. Reliance and HLL ended with marginal losses at Rs 534 and Rs 145, respectively.
ONGC was down Rs 2 at Rs 807.
Infosys (down Rs 5 to Rs 2,166) ended on a subdued note. Wipro and Satyam slipped a per cent each to Rs 691 (down Rs 6) and Rs 405 (down Rs 3), respectively.
Maruti lost 2.19% (Rs 10) to Rs 463. While Tata Motors shed 2% (Rs 10) to Rs 479, Bajaj was down Rs 2 at Rs 1,035. Hero Honda, however, was up a per cent (Rs 5) at Rs 536.
Gujarat Ambuja and ACC were down a per cent each at Rs 436 (down s 5) and Rs 364 (down Rs 3), respectively. Grasim also ended weak at Rs 1,350 - down Rs 4.
Dr. Reddy's lost 1.58% (Rs 12) to Rs 729. Ranbaxy and Cipla ended with a per cent loss each at Rs 1,030 (down Rs 9) and Rs 272 (down Rs 2), respectively.
SBI was down a rupee at Rs 658. ICICI Bank flared up 1.78% (Rs 7) to s 384, and HDFC Bank advanced 1.23% (Rs 7) to Rs 565.
Bharti upped its gains in late noon trades and soared 3.76% (Rs 8) to close at Rs 218. While Hindalco clocked a per cent gain (Rs 11) to Rs 1,374, Tisco added Rs 2 to Rs 414. Tata Power, however, dipped 1.46% (Rs 6) to Rs 413.