The Sensex opened on a flat note at 6,545, and touched a high of 6,561 in early deals.
Sustained selling in heavyweights, particularly Infosys and Reliance, saw the index slip into negative zone.
The Sensex was in the red for most part of the trading session today. After dipping to a low of 6,457 - a drop of 104 points from the intra-day high - the Sensex finally closed with a loss of 1.01% (66 points) at 6,480.
The Nifty lost 22 points to 2,031.
While 25 index scrips declined, five advanced today. Declining shares accounted for a volume of 1.01 crore shares totalling Rs 527 crore, advancing scrips clocked a volume of 12 lakh shares for Rs 61 crore.
Tech pivotals finished on a bearish note. Infosys tanked 2.8% (Rs 61) to Rs 2,127. While Satyam dropped 2.7% (Rs 11) to Rs 412, Wipro was down 2% (Rs 12) at Rs 667.
ITC zoomed 2% (Rs 28) to Rs 1,402. Reliance slipped 1.5% (Rs 8) to Rs 557. SBI was down Rs 2 at Rs 653. HLL and ONGC also declined.
Grasim dropped 1.7% (Rs 20) to Rs 1,201. Gujarat Ambuja and ACC also declined.
HDFC Bank declined 2.7% (Rs 15) to Rs 547. BHEL dropped 1.6% (Rs 12) to Rs 778. ICICI Bank, Hero Honda, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, L&T and Zee also finished on a weak note.
Bajaj closed with a steady gain of 1.4% (Rs 14) at Rs 1,053. Bharti was up Rs 4 at Rs 213, and HPCL was also up Rs 4 at Rs 323.