Intense selling pressure ruled for the third straight day as the BSE benchmark Sensex fell by another 114.06 points to end at 27,573.66 despite a recovery in global financial markets.
"Markets shut the day on a cautious note with negative bias ahead of the corporate earnings. Weak global cues on account of worries on Greece and China also weighed on the sentiment," said Gaurav Jain, Director, Hem Securities.
After climbing to the day's high of 27,798.13 in morning trade, the 30-pack index entered the negative zone at a low of 27,540.60 before settling 114.06 points, or 0.41 per cent, down at 27,573.66.
Similarly, the 50-share Nifty lost 34.50 points, or 0.41 per cent, to end at 8,328.55. Intra-day, it moved between 8,400.30 and 8,323.
Sentiment continued to remain edgy after overnight sharp sell-off in equities, which added to the caution ahead of the corporate earnings season starting today.
The initial strong recovery momentum proved to be short-lived as indices turned choppy and traded in a narrow range for most part of the session.
Technology major TCS, with its results announcement after the trading hours, will set the tone of the earnings season.
The market loss was led by Vedanta, TCS, Bajaj Auto, Infosys, Tata Motors and Wipro.
The stocks that registered gains included BHEL followed by L&T, Hindalco, HeromotoCorp, Bharti Artel and Lupin.
Sectorally, oil & gas topped the sellers list.
BSE mid-cap and small-cap also settled marginally lower by 0.30 and 0.33 per cent, respectively.
Meanwhile, other Asian equities staged a smart recovery after a rebound in battered Chinese markets, with the key Shanghai Composite index rallying by 5.76 per cent. Hang Seng surged 3.73 per cent and Japan's Nikkei was up 0.60 per cent.
However, European stocks are trading firmly higher on hopes of a Greek breakthrough.
