The Sensex touched a high of 26,998.07 points and a low of 26,794.10 points in the intra-day trade.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was range bound at 8,000-mark. However, it closed the day's trade in negative territory. It was down 63.50 points or 0.78 percent at 8,042 points.

Metal, capital goods, information technology (IT), oil and gas and bank stocks sustained heavy selling pressure, while healthcare and realty stocks rose.

The S&P BSE metal index was down 225.96 points, capital goods slipped by 154.38 points, oil and gas index was lower by 123.34 points, bank index plunged 118.33 points and oil and gas index lost 93.94 points.

However, healthcare index was up 42.09 points and realty index increased by 0.40 percent.

The major Sensex losers were: Hindalco, down 3.26 percent at 163.10; Tata Steel, down 2.09 percent at 506.25; ONGC, down 1.90 percent at 421; Sesa Sterlite, down 1.72 points at 285.50; and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), down 1.68 percent at 2,562.

The major Sensex gainers were: Cipla, up 2.13 percent at 625.60; Hero MotoCorp, up 1.74 percent at 2,805; DrReddys, up 0.42 percent at 2,973.55; and HDFC Bank, up 0.42 percent at 858.90.