On a weekly basis, the Sensex fell 294.75 points or 1.04 per cent and the NSE Nifty slipped 94.35 points or 1.08 per cent. Both the indexes posted second straight weekly losses.
Shares of Welspun India despite rising 7 per cent during the day, pared all of its initial gains to end lower by 8.64 per cent at Rs 49.70. The scrip had plunged by 47 per cent in the past four sessions.
"The market was a bit cautious and traded on a wait and watch mode as the investors are not ready to take risk ahead of the Fed chair's speech. Any hawkish view might result in outflow of foreign funds from the emerging markets like India in the near term," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.
More From This Section
The 50-share NSE Nifty ended 19.65 points or 0.23 per cent down at 8,572.55, after trading between 8,622.95 and 8,547.55.
Broader markets showed mixed trend as mid-cap rose 0.17 per cent, while small-cap indices was down 0.12 per cent.
Elsewhere, Asian stocks ended mixed while European stocks opened lower, with investors focusing on a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen later in the session for hints about the timing of a US interest rate hike.
Back home, 17 scrips out of the 30-share Sensex pack ended
lower while 13 closed higher.
Major losers included Wipro (3.00 pc), L&T (2.02 pc), Adani Ports (1.75 pc), Infy (1.52 pc), SBI (1.34 pc), Sun Pharma (1.16 pc), HUL (0.85 pc), Bharti Airtel (0.85 pc), Power Grid (0.85 pc), TCS (0.82 pc), ICICI Bank (0.77 pc) and Lupin (0.68 pc).
However, Tata Motors rose 2.01 per cent followed by GAIL 1.61 per cent, Asian Paints 1.51 per cent, RIL 1.44 per cent and Cipla 0.88 per cent.
The market breadth remained positive as 1,547 stocks ended in green, 1,094 closed in red while 209 ruled steady.
The total turnover on BSE was to Rs 2,799.42 crore, lower than turnover of Rs 2,922.56 crore registered during the previous trading session.