Witnessing high volatility, power, banking, metal, capital goods and realty stocks ended the day in the red.
The 30-share Sensex commenced higher at 28,327.11 and advanced to touch the day's high of 28,335.67. However, profit-booking at higher-levels pulled the index to intra-day's low of 28,193.93.
The 30-share index finally settled down by 61.74 points or 0.22 per cent at 28,236.39.
In previous two days, the gauge had gained 226.20 points.
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During the day, State-run power equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) shocked the market by posting 82.48 per cent plunge in standalone net profit at Rs 33.89 crore for the quarter ended June 30.
BHEL was biggest loser on both the benchmark indices of BSE and the NSE. At BSE, company's shares plunged by 5.81 per cent to Rs 265.80.
The support, however, came from Tata Motors, whose shares jumped 2.52 per cent on BSE.
In line with overall trend, mid-cap index fell by 0.24 and small-cap index dropped 0.14 per cent.
Of the 30-pack Sensex, 19 ended with losses, while Maruti Suzuki ended flat.
The losers included, BHEL, Coal India, SBI, NTPC, Bajaj Auto, Cipla, TCS, Bharti Airtel, Wipro, Axis Bank, Lupin, M&M HDFC, Tata Motors, ONGC, Bajaj Auto, HUL and Axis Bank.
On the other side of the spectrum were, ONGC, Tata Motors, Vedanta, Hindalco, Sun Pharma, Infosys, RIL , L&T, Hero MotoCorp and Tata Steel.
Globally, Asian markets closed higher, while Europe was largely higher in their early trade.