Equities continued to witness selling for the third-straight day as poor earnings combined with some caution over the GST bill decision kept investors on an edge amid sluggish overseas tone.
The benchmark Nifty drifted 13.65 points or 0.16 per cent to end at 8,622.90.
Metal, realty, pharma, auto, infra and select banking counters saw fair amount of unwinding, while good buying support in FMCG and technology shares largely cushioned the fall.
However, trading sentiment remained supported by heavy capital inflows in the face of buoyant hopes that the GST bill will pass in the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament along with robust core sector growth output and manurfacturing PMI data.
The much awaited and delayed GST bill that is likely to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha tomorrow, paving way for the country's biggest fiscal reform.
Despite a strong start, bourses surrendered all its intra-day gains in late afternoon trade due to bouts of profit-taking tracking hefty falls in European markets underlined by uncertainty over banking sector and also concerns over the new fiscal stimulus package from Japan.
The 50-share Nifty opened higher at 8,647.45 and swung between a high of 8,687.20 and a low of 8,611.40 before ending at 8,622.90, revealing a fall of 13.65 points, or 0.16 per cent.
Among the sectoral indices, Nifty metal registered biggest losses among peers, sliding 1.94 per cent, followed by Realty (1.20 per cent), Healthcare (1.01 per cent), Infra (0.46 per cent) and Nifty Bank (0.17 per cent).
The mid-cap and small-cap also dropped by 0.84 per cent and 0.62 per cent, respectively.
However, FMCG shot-up (2.27 per cent), PSU Bank (0.72 per cent) and IT (0.36 per cent).
Major laggards included HDFC, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, Bharti Infratel, Aurobindo Pharma, Eicher Motors, BPCL, Bosch, Ultratechcem, Adani Ports, Bharti Artel, Sunpharma and Wipro.
Key gainers were TCS, Maruti, HCL-Tech, L&T, Kotak Bank, Heromotoco, Reliance, Tech Mahindra, ONGC, Power Grid.
A total 1137 stocks declined, 484 advanced while 70 ruled steady.
Turnover in cash segment dropped to Rs 23,091.42 crore from Rs 24,270.12 crore yesterday.
A total of 11,181.82 lakh shares changed hands in 88,86,616 trades. The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 106,50,322 crore.
