The Sensex opened on a subdued note at 7,275, but slipped into negative zone after reports on the Ayodhya developments. After moving in a narrow range in morning deals, the Sensex zoomed to a high of 7,309 in early noon trades.
The index, however, could not hold the gains, and slipped on selling in tech scrips. After touching a low of 7,210 towards the closing bell, the Sensex finally closed with a loss of 57 points (0.78%) at 7,220.
The Nifty closed at 2,211, down 20 points.
While 22 index scrips declined with a volume of 78 lakh shares totalling Rs 437 crore, eight advanced with a volume of 48 lakh shares for Rs 208 crore.
Infosys slipped 2.7% (Rs 65) to Rs 2,330. TCS declined 2.75% (Rs 37) to Rs 1,321. Satyam was down 2.5% (Rs 13) at Rs 498, and Wipro dropped Rs 7 to Rs 737.
Reliance was down nearly a per cent (Rs 6) at Rs 638. SBI also declined nearly a per cent (Rs 7) to Rs 704. ITC was down Rs 9 at Rs 1,674, and ONGC slipped Rs 7 to Rs 980.
Cipla dropped over 3% (Rs 10) to Rs 319. Grasim declined 1.6% (Rs 17) to Rs 1,051. ACC was down nearly a per cent (Rs 4) at Rs 386.
HDFC was firm right through the session,and closed with a gain of 2.5% (Rs 22) at Rs 902. Tata Motors closed on a firm note with a gain of 4% (Rs 17) at Rs 444.
The BSE Teck Index declined over 2% (41 points) to 1,874. The BSE Capital Goods Index moved up over 1% (53 points) to 3,764. The BSE Auto, BSE Consumer Durables and BSE Metal indices closed with marginal gains.
Out of 2,578 scrips traded, 1,611 declined, 912 advanced and 55 were unchanged today.
ABB advanced over 6% (Rs 81) to Rs 1,415. Siemens also moved up nearly 6% (Rs 119) to Rs 2,109.
Tech scrips finished on a weak note. Rolta was down over 4% at Rs 125. Polaris declined 3% to Rs 126. i-flex lost over 3% to Rs 810.
Essar Oil topped the volume chart with trades in over 1.41 crore shares followed by Tata Tele-services (over 78 lakh shares) and Reliance Capital (over 66 lakh shares).
Reliance Capital was the most active counter with a turnover of over Rs 255 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 109 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 98 crore).