IT, media, metal, pharma counters attracted good buying support, while the gains were washed out by fall in banking and finance stocks.
The wide-based 50-issue Nifty resumed lower and hit a low of 5,825.85 on weak Asian advices as investors were worried about the US shutdown as lawmakers in Washington remain deadlocked over extending the nation's debt limit to avoid default before October 17 deadline.
Second-line shares outperformed the frontline stocks as the overall market breadth was higher with 731 scrips gaining ground as against 549 that lost.
Asian stocks closed in the red, while European markets were down over the US debt problem.
Top five losers from the Nifty pack were Coal India (3.32 per cent), Axis Bank (1.89 per cent), Bharti Airtel (1.55 per cent), ICICI Bank (1.55 per cent) and L&T (1.31 per cent). Five gainers were Ranbaxy (5.97 per cent), Tata Steel (4.14 per cent), BPCL (3.34 per cent), Hindalco (3.22 per cent) and TCS (2.76 per cent).
