Besides, high oil prices and a widening probe in the spectrum scam kept the investor sentiment damp.
The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex, which had lost nearly 445 points in last two trading session, rolled down further by 129.73 points, or 0.74 per cent, to 17,463.04, a level last seen on July 7, last year.
The barometer touched the day`s low of 17,362.59 before recovering a bit following an upsurge in the hard hit Anil Ambani group companies -- Reliance Infra, Reliance Com, Reliance Broadcast, Reliance Capital and Reliance Mediaworks.
The gauge has fallen 7.5 per cent since the Reserve Bank of India raised key interest rates on January 25 for the seventh time since March and indicated more hikes in futures to curb overall inflation.
The food inflation, however, dipped to 7-week low of 13.07 per cent for the week ended January 29, but failed to influence the trading sentiment as reports of the third quarter earnings by the Indian Oil failed to meet market expectations.
The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty lost 27.75 points, or 0.53 per cent to 5,225.80. It touched the day`s low of 5,196.80.
The teck sector index suffered the most by falling 1.54 per cent to 3,596.07, followed by IT index -- 1.53 per cent to 6,147.54. The realty sector fell 1.03 per cent to 2,063.16 and oil and gas index by 0.81 per cent to 9,138.95.
The oil major and most index heaviest Reliance Industries fell by Rs 12.10 to Rs 899.75 and second-heaviest software major Infosys by Rs 70.95 to Rs 3,056.05. The two carry nearly 23 per cent weightage on the Sensex.
The banking index fell by 0.31 per cent to 11,442.33 as the heavy-weight State Bank of India dropped Rs 94.25 to Rs 2,496.65, the most in a month.