The Sensex dived for the fourth straight session today to close at almost a two-week low of 26,375 by falling about 115 points, tracking negative leads from the global market amid continuous capital outflow.
Concerns over soaring oil prices, trading above the USD 55 a barrel overseas, and absence of any market-moving event weighed on sentiment.
The benchmark was in loss zone throughout the day and hit a low of 26,340.38 before settling at 26,374.70 -- its weakest closing since December 7 -- down 114.86 points, or 0.43 per cent. The index had fallen 208.26 points in the previous three sessions.
The 50-issue NSE Nifty tumbled 35.10 points, or 0.43 per cent, to close 8,104.35 after cracking the key 8,100-mark and touching a low of 8,094.85.
Mid- and small-cap indices fell 0.51 per cent and 0.46 per cent, respectively, on sustained selling pressure from retail investors.
Tree House Education plunged as much as 20 per cent today to close at a 52-week low of Rs 19.10 after Zee Learn called off its proposed merger and threatened to take legal recourse to seek damages from the failed deal.
Sentiment took a hit largely in tandem with a weak trend at other Asian markets and a lower opening of European shares, reflecting weekend sell-off on the Wall Street on concerns about mounting US-China tension.
Moreover, market turned lacklustre in view of approaching holiday season year ending as FIIs preferred to keep their volume at a lower level while withdrawing funds from emerging markets, they said.
Asian Paints suffered the most by diving 2.35 per cent followed by Sun Pharma at 2.30 per cent.
Out of the 30-share Sensex pack, 21 ended lower and one remained unchanged.
Other big losers are HDFC 1.58 per cent, Bharti Airtel (1.56 per cent), Adani Ports (1.32 per cent), Maruti Suzuki (1.32 per cent), SBI (1.27 per cent), Axis Bank (1.11 per cent), Dr Reddy's (1.06 per cent) and L&T (1.02 per cent).
However, GAIL rose 2.23 per cent followed by ICICI Bank (0.51 per cent), RIL (0.43 per cent) and Cipla (0.43 per cent).
Among BSE sectoral indices, consumer durables fell by 1.24 per cent followed by healthcare 0.85 per cent, capital goods 0.84 per cent, metal 0.79 per cent, realty 0.69 per cent, auto 0.59 per cent and banking 0.27 per cent.
In regional markets, Hong Kong stocks led the decline by diving 0.85 per cent while China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.16 per cent. Japan's Nikkei shed 0.05 per cent.
European markets also traded lower as the key indices in France, Germany and the UK were down in the range of 0.30 per cent to 0.11 per cent.
Foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth net Rs 90.36 crore last Friday, as per provisional data.
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