A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed Monday's trade 37 points or 0.15 percent lower as capital goods and bank stocks declined.
This is the second straight session of losses. On Friday, it had fallen 348.04 points or 1.36 percent amidst weak global cues as a result of the worsening security in Iraq and US threatening intervention with crude oil prices scaling to a nine-month high.
The markets' also reacted cautiously to sharp jump in food and fuel prices, as India's wholesale price based inflation rose to a five-month high of 6.01 percent in May against 5.20 percent in the previous month.
However, healthy buying was observed in information technology (IT), healthcare and consumer durables stocks.
The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 25,239.50 points, closed trade at 25,190.48 points, down 37.69 points or 0.15 percent from previous day's close at 25,228.17 point.
The Sensex touched a high of 25,268.41 points and a low of 25,063.93 points during the intra-trade.
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The S&P BSE capital goods index was down 183.68 points, automobile index lost 163.24 points and bank index moved lower by 89.28 points.
However, IT index gained 136.96 points, followed by healthcare index which was up 78.86 points and consumer durables index was higher by 69.78 points.
The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also flat. It was down 8.55 points or 0.11 percent at 7,533.55 points.
The major Sensex gainers were: Gail India, up 3.95 percent at Rs.433.25; Sun Pharma, up 2.49 percent at Rs.643.55; Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), up 2.43 percent at Rs.2,268.55; Infosys, up 1.90 percent at Rs.3,242.20 and Tata Power, up 1.69 percent at Rs.105.35.
The losers were: Axis Bank, down 2.58 percent at Rs.1,772.25; Mahindra and Mahindra, down 2.34 percent at Rs.1,200.70; Larsen and Toubro (L&T), down 2.08 percent at Rs.1,650.70; Reliance Industries, down 1.61 percent at Rs.1,064.50; and Tata Motors, down 1.58 percent at Rs.430.90.
Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 1.09 percent down. China's Shanghai Composite Index was higher by 0.74 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.08 percent.
In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.33 percent down and Germany's DAX Index was lower by 0.26 percent, while the French CAC 40 Index lost 0.55 percent at the closing bell here.