Sensex dipped 76 points on profit-booking and uncertainty on the global front over the outcome of monetary policy review by the European Central Bank and Bank of England.
Opening marginally higher at 25,669 against the previous close of 25,665, the benchmark index made a high of 25,778 and low of 25,526. It closed at 25,589 with a loss of 76 points.
The turnover on the BSE was higher at Rs 2,678 crore against the previous close of Rs 3,042 crore on Wednesday.
In NSE, Nifty was down 23 points at 7,649.
Bhushan Steel fell by maximum permissible limit of 20 per cent to Rs 243.70. The stock was the biggest loser from the BSE 'A' group.
The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested the now-suspended Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Syndicate Bank SK Jain after he had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 50 lakh from Bhushan Steel to not convert the company's outstanding loan into a non-performing asset. Neeraj Singhal, Vice-Chairman of Bhushan Steel is on the Singhal plea for anticipatory bail was rejected.
Shares of PSU banks such as Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank declined. State Bank of India rose 0.43 per cent to Rs 2,437 while Bank of India gained 0.44 per cent to `275.
Bharti Airtel fell 0.38 per cent to Rs 366 after the company, the promoter of Bharti Infratel, put on the block up to 8.5 crore shares of Bharti Infratel through offer for sale via a separate window provided by the stock exchanges. The floor price of share sale was set at Rs 250 a share.
Shares of Bharti Infratel dropped 7% to Rs 253.
Major gainers of the day include MCX (5%), HPCL (3%), Jindal Steel (3%), Financial Tech (3%), ACC (3%), Indian Oil Corp (3%) and Apollo Hospital (2%).
Prominent losers were Bhushan Steel (-20%), Bharti Infratel (-7%), UPL (-5%), Jubilant FoodWorks (-4%), JP Infratec (-4%), Wockhardt (-3%), Indian Bank (-3%) and Mangalore Refinery (-3%).