The Sensex opened 31 points higher at 17,404. Though it went a bit higher to 17,414, the higher levels could not be sustained. The index slipped into the negative zone, losing 143 points.
The Sensex recovered partially and finally ended with a loss of 34 points at 17,339.
The market breadth was decidedly negative - out of 2,764 stocks traded, 1,526 declined, 1,175 advanced and 63 were unchanged on Wednesday.
The NSE Nifty shed 8 points to end at 5,135.50.
Index shakers
Bhel was the biggest Sensex loser, declining 4.12% to Rs 1,783.75.
Bharti Airtel declined 3.64% to Rs 815.80.
DLF and Larsen & Toubro tumbled around 2.5% and 2.4% to Rs 651 and Rs 2,986, respectively.
Ranbaxy slipped 1.8% at Rs 466. Satyam was down 1.5% to Rs 489, while Hindalco declined 1.15% to Rs 180. ICICI Bank was 1% lower at Rs 919 and Grasim was down 0.86% to Rs 2,337.
NTPC and Cipla were both down 0.65% each to Rs 195 and Rs 214.
And the movers
TCS was the biggest gainer in the index, up 3% at Rs 966. Mahindra & Mahindra gained 1.5% to Rs 674 and Infosys was up 1.25% to Rs 1,843.
Hindustan Unilever, Jaiprakash Associates, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, and Maruti gained over 1% each.
Value and volume toppers
Reliance Capital topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 240.15 crore followed by Idea Cellular (Rs 205.60 crore), Cairn (Rs 204.46 crore), Bharti (Rs 172.07 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 167.23 crore).
Idea Cellular led the volume chart with trades of around 2.04 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.02 crore), Cairn (0.74 crore), Reliance Petroleum (0.63 crore) and Essar Oil (0.35 crore).
