Snapping a two-day rise, the benchmark Nifty retreated from its three-week high to end modestly lower by over 7 points to 7,935.25 on bouts of profit-taking in the run-up to the RBI monetary policy meet.
Cautious pessimism by market participants ahead of the September quarter GDP data, which was announced later in the day, also weighed on trade.
A sluggish trend in other Asian bourses as well as sustained selling from FIIs also hit domestic sentiment.
After a weak start, benchmark indices largely traded range-bound in the absence of any major supportive cue and fluctuated between positive and negative zones throughout the session.
However, some tail-end buying at rate-sensitive counters ahead of RBI's fifth bi-monthly monetary policy review tomorrow and also expectations that the GST Bill will be passed in the ongoing Parliament session helped the market cut down its losses.
The 50-share index resumed lower at 7,936.25 and hovered between a high of 7,966 and a low of 7,922.80 before settling at 7,935.25, a modest fall of 7.45 points, or 0.09 per cent.
Among sectoral indices, FMCG shed (0.77 per cent), healthcare (0.65 per cent), energy (0.52 per cent) and metal (0.03 per cent). However, realty, banking, auto, infra and technology maintained their upmove.
The broader markets outperformed benchmarks with mid-cap and small-cap surging 0.57 and 1.07 per cent, respectively.
Those that lost are HDFC, Reliance, ITC, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Bosch, HUL, Lupin, Kotak Bank, Coal India and Zee.
Gains came from Infosys, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, L&T, TCS, M&M, PowerGrid, IndusInd and Bajaj Auto.
Turnover in cash segment shot up to Rs 29,535.03 crore from Rs 16,235.99 crore last Friday. A total of 14,019.82 lakh shares changed hands in 92,75,050 trades. The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 96,75,669 crore.
