The benchmark Nifty retreated after a strong overnight rally and closed lower by 6 points on fresh bout of profit-booking amid fading hopes of rate cut.
The Greek debt deal inspired relief rally turned out to be extremely short lived as investors preferred to take out some gains made on previous session and adopt a wait-and-see approach as first-quarter earnings season gets underway.
Some caution ahead of US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's two-day testimony to Congress tomorrow also weighed on trade.
Consumer Price Index (CPI) data which showed retail inflation surging to a eight-month high of 5.4 per cent in June further dampened investors sentiment amid fading hopes of a rate-cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
After a sluggish start, key indices traded in a tight range for the most part of the day in the absence of any definite cues, though its briefly traded in green before falling back to end modestly lower.
The 50-share broder index fluctuated between a high of 8,480.25 and a low of 8,424.10 before settling at 8,454.10, a modest loss of 5.55 points, or 0.07 per cent.
Meanwhile, crude prices plunged sharply on news that six global powers have reached a long awaited historic nuclear deal with Iran and lifting economic sanctions against Tehran.
On the sectoral front, CNX PSU banking fell the most followed by Auto, Financials, Energy and Realty.
However, Metal, Healthcare, Media, FMCG, Infra and IT witnessed sustained buying support. Mid-cap and Small-cap also gained modestly by 0.27 and 0.19 per cent, respectively.
Tata Motors topped the sellers list, falling over 4 per cent. Other major losers included SBI, ICICI Bank, ITC, Reliance, HDFC Bank, HDFC, TCS, Kotak Mahindra, HCL-Tech, Vedanta, Ultratech, Hindalco, Tata Steel, ONGC and Bharti Atl.
Among the gainers are Infosys, HUL, Coal India, Lupin, Heromotoco, Wipro, Sun Pharma, Ambuja Cements, BHEL and Cipla.
Shares of PSU oil marketing companies also saw huge demand and rallied over 3 per cent on falling crude prices.
In the midcap space, IIFL jumped over 10 per cent after Fairfax India announced an open offer to buy stake in the company.
Turnover in the cash segment rose to Rs 14,947.68 crore from Rs 14,257.15 crore yesterday.
A total of 8,707.59 lakh shares changed hands in 72,39,075 trades and the total market capitalisation of the Nifty stood at Rs 1,00,50,950 crore.
