The market snapped the four session gains to slip 26.15 points on profit-booking amid caution as RBI kept the key rates unchanged, though the benchmark managed to hold the crucial 8,500-level.
Opening positive, the index momentum turned highly volatile following investors felt let-down by the central bank keeping its policy rate unchanged citing a spike in food prices and banks passing on to consumers only less than half of its previous rate-cuts.
In its third bi-monthly policy of the fiscal, RBI left benchmark lending (repo) rate unchanged at 7.25 per cent as also the cash reserve ratio (CRR) at 4 per cent.
Hectic profit-booking took the key index to day's low of 8,448.25, however was cushioned by the performance of second-line shares of mid-cap and small-cap companies, also well supported by the continued rally in PSU bank stocks on government capital infusion plans.
Selling was led by key Energy, Realty, Pharma, IT, Infra and FMCG counters.
The broader 50-share Nifty opened higher at 8,564.10 and hovered between 8,565.15 and 8,448.25 before ending at 8,516.90, showing a loss of 26.15 points or 0.31 per cent.
Major losers were Idea (3.92 per cent), Cairn (3.06 per cent), Hero MotoCorp (2.72 per cent), ONGC (2.67 per cent), GAIL (2.61 per cent), Infosys (2.01 per cent), Tata Motors (1.92 per cent), HDFC (1.65 per cent) and RIL (1.44 per cent).
Notable gainers were Tech Mahindra (3.52 per cent), Tata Steel (3.37 per cent), Hindalco (3.36 per cent), Bank of Baroda (3.35 per cent) and Asian Paint (3.21 per cent).
Turnover in the cash segment climbed to Rs 22,023.11 crore compared with Rs 19,170.94 crore yesterday.
A total of 10,752.38 lakh shares changed hands in 96,33,710 trades and the total market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 1,02,36,688 crore.
