Caution ahead of the expiry of March month Futures and Options (F&O) contracts tomorrow and portfolio churning in the view of fiscal year ending next week weighed, traders said.
The 30-share index had risen to a day's high of 28,249.60 in early trade but profit-booking in capital goods, power, metal, oil & gas and banking stocks saw the BSE Sensex touch the session's low of 28,031.42.
NTPC emerged as the worst performer among Sensex and Nifty stocks by closing over 3.5 per cent down, followed by GAIL, L&T, Coal India and SBI that fell between 2-3 per cent range.
In the 30-Sensex constituents, as many as 18 counters ended in negative zone while and 11 led by ICICI Bank, Wipro, Sesa Sterlite, M&M and Axis Bank rose and ITC ended flat.
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The 50-share NSE Nifty lost 12.15 points, or 0.14 per cent, to settle at 8,530.80 -- its lowest level since January 15. In six days, it has now lost over 190 points.
A better trend in other Asian markets and higher opening in Europe also failed to buoy sentiments here.
Sectorwise, the BSE Capital Goods index suffered the most by losing 1.65 per cent, Power (down 1.17 pc), Metal (down 0.97 pc), Oil&Gas (down 0.56 pc), Banking (down 0.30 pc) and Realty (down 0.20 per cent). The BSE Smallcap index fell 0.67 per cent while the Mid-cap index ended 0.48 per cent lower.