A few blue chips from oil, capital goods, banking and information technology sectors did find some support, but the overall mood was cautious with a somewhat negative bias today. Consumer durables and realty stocks tumbled. FMCG stocks found the going quite tough on concerns about the progress of the monsoon. Metal, automobile, power and healthcare stocks were mostly flat. Several stocks from midcap and smallcap sections ended with notable losses. 

The Sensex, which rose to 17,678.86 in early trades, faltered soon and declined to 17,492.19 in afternoon trade and finally ended the day at 17,550.63, netting a loss of 9.67 points or 0.06%.

The Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange closed at 5278.30 with a small gain of 2.45 points or 0.05%. It touched a high of 5310.50 and a low of 5262.50 during the day.