Among the gainers were Bharti, ACC, Cipla, Tata Steel, Reliance Petro, Sterlite Ind, JP Associate, M&M, Cairn India and HCL Tech.
SBI, PNB ended in positive terrain. Heavyweight ONGC is also helped in the recovery.
Punj Loyd, HCC, GMR Infra are the midcap stocks closed in green.
L&T might book hedging losses in UAE arm and the stock was down over 8% followed by BHEL, Unitech, Dr Reddy's Labs, Tata Power, Reliance Energy, Siemens, Tata Motors, Wipro, ABB and ICICI Bank.
The BSE Midcap Index ended at 6,767.92 down 0.54%.
The BSE Smallcap Index ended at 8,248.73 down 1.9%.
Sensex closed down 51.80 points or 0.32% at 15923.72, and the Nifty up 28.80 points or 0.60% at 4800.40.
About 886 shares have advanced, 2095 shares declined, and 67 shares are unchanged.
The BSE Bankex ended at 8,438.99 down 0.5%. SBI, PNB closed up; ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra, Oriental Bank, Allahabad Bank moved downwards.
The BSE Capital Goods Index closed down 4.5% at 13,341.09. L&T, BHEL, Siemens, Astra Microwave, BEML, Crompton Greave, Thermax, Greaves Cotton, Areva T&D closed lower.
The BSE Auto Index closed at 4,653.96 up 0.4%. Escorts, TVS Motor, Amtek Auto, Bajaj Auto closed higher.
The BSE Metal Index closed at 15,799.61 up 2%. Sterlite, NALCO, Shree Precoated, Mah Seamless, Jindal Steel, Jindal Saw, JindalStainless closed higher.
The BSE FMCG Index closed down 1% at 2,190.26. Colgate, ITC, Bata India, Godrej Consumer, HUL, GlaxoSmith Con closed lower.
BSE Oil and Gas Index closed at 10,225.67 up 2%. Reliance Petro, Cairn India, ONGC ended in green BSE power index closed at 3,112.34 down 1.3%. Torrent Power, NTPC, Reliance Energy, Tata Power, Power Grid Corp, Crompton Greave ended in red.
The BSE IT Index was down 2% at 3,570.84. I-Flex Solution, Patni Computer, Financial Tech, Mphasis, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Infosys closed lower.
The NSE cash turnover was at Rs 16437.42 crore and the NSE F&O turnover was at Rs 42402.3 crore. The BSE cash turnover was Rs 6877.8 crore. Total market wide turnover was at Rs 65717.52 crore.