"Investor focus was on the monsoon session of Parliament and heavyweight earnings as the market traded sideways and finally closed in the negative territory," said Alex Mathews, Head Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.
Cautious investors steered clear of healthcare, realty, refinery, banking and FMCG counters.
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Sun Pharma dealt the maximum blow, plunging as much as 15%, its biggest daily fall, after the company warned that its earnings numbers would be tepid at best.
But the silver lining was Infosys whose stock zoomed 11 per cent after the company reported a nearly 5 per cent yoy increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 3,030 crore for the June quarter. Its bullish revenue guidance lifted other IT stocks too.
The Sensex started the day on a weaker note at 28,391.82, but recovered immediately to 28,518.06 on the back of solid foreign capital inflows coupled with Infosys' positive show.
Intra-day, it fell to 28,138.30 before settling at 28,182.14, down 237.98 points, or 0.84 per cent, largely due to fag-end profit-booking by participants.
The 50-share Nifty dropped 74 points, or 0.86 per cent, to close at 8,529.45 after trading between 8,517.90 and 8,646.75.
Of the 30 Sensex stocks, 23 ended lower while only seven notched up gains.