The Sensex opened 43 points lower at 14,681. After the initial weakness, the index rebounded into the positive zone and touched a high of 14,825. The index, however, could not hold gains and slipped back into the negative zone.
Considerable weakness in energy and metal stocks saw the index drop to a low of 14,601 - down 224 points from the day's high. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 90 points at 14,634.
The NSE Nifty was down 41 points at 4,390.
The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,575 stocks traded so far, 1,490 have declined, 992 have advanced and 93 were unchanged today.