Logging second straight weekly fall, the benchmark BSE Sensex today frittered away midsession gains and closed 45 points down as cautious investors preferred to reduce their position at improved levels in blue-chip stocks.
In volatile movements, Sensex after falling to day's low of 26,718.44 points in early trade, staged a strong comeback to regain the 27,000-mark on value-buying in badly hit blue-chip stocks as the much awaited monsoon finally arrived in Kerala.
However, on across-the-board selling towards the fag-end, the Sensex again slipped into negative zone and closed the session 44.93 points or 0.17 per cent down at 26,768.49.
The gauge has lost 1,080.50 points in last four days after RBI took a cautious stance on economic recovery and IMD forecast monsoon to be "deficient" this year.
The 50-issue NSE Nifty also fell by 15.95 points or 0.20 per cent to 8,114.70. It shuttled between 8,191.00 and 8,100.15 during the session.
Both the indices, Sensex and Nifty, ended in the negative zone for second straight week.
ICICI Bank fell the most among Sensex stocks by dropping 2.18 per cent, followed by Tata Motors 2.11 per cent.
Other major losers on the index included HDFC, Axis Bank, TCS, Cipla, Hindalco, Infosys, BHEL, RIL, Vedanta, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank and Dr Reddy's.
Meanwhile, Nestle continued its slide and shed 0.23 per cent to Rs 5,997.10 after the company decided to take Maggi off the shelves following a controversy over its contents, prompting several states to ban the 'two-minute' noodles.
Bucking the bearish trend, shares of Coal India rose 4.44 per cent after Morgan Stanley upgraded it to "overweight" from "equal weight".
Overall, 16 Sensex shares ended lower, while 14 finished in the positive zone.
Sectorally, the BSE realty fell the most by plunging 1.44 per cent, followed by bankex (0.93 per cent), IT (0.80 per cent), auto (0.60 per cent) and teck (0.46 per cent).
Globally, other Asian bourses closed weak and European markets were lower in their opening trade as Greece deferred a debt repayment and German bonds extended declines in their worst week since 1998.
