Indian stocks fell for the first time in 5 sessions as investors paused for breath at 4-month highs. Traders took some money away from the table from a rally that started on February 1st, the day when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented his budget proposals for the year to March 2018.

Stocks are also consolidating at current levels ahead of the Reserve Bank Of India's monetary policy meeting on Wednesday. Markets are primed for a 25 basis points cut in interest rates.

Overseas cues were tepid as no discernable trend was visible from both Asian and European equities. Index futures in the US markets were quiet as well. Among major corporate developments in India were the government's move to sell a 2 percent stake in cigarette-to-hotels giant ITC, raising Rupees 6,700 crore.

Meanwhile, Here are the major trading events of the day:

* Coal India, Ambuja Cement, ACC, Lupin, ONGC and UltraTech Cement fell between 1.7-4.2 percent and were among 38 stocks that fell on the Nifty.

* BHEL, Bank of Baroda, BPCL, Kotak Bank and Larsen & Toubro rose 1-6.5 percent on the Nifty and were among 13 stocks that advanced on the index.

* Punjab National Bank, post earnings, BHEL, ITC and Indiabulls Housing Finance were among the top traded shares by value.

* Amtek Auto, South India Bank, IDFC Bank and Jindal Steel & Power saw higher than average traded volume and made their presence felt on the list of most active securities.

* Broad market indices were mostly flat in trade with the Nifty 100, 200 and 500 indices dropping 0.3 percent each. Mild losses were also witnessed on the mid cap and small cap counters.

* The sectoral space closed in the red with the metals, pharma and auto sectors coming under selling pressure. Three out of 4 banking indices lost ground with the PSU bank index edging higher.

* Fundamentally strong stocks that saw mild profit booking included UPL, DLF, Oil India, Shriram Transport and Britannia.

* Stocks that were in brief uptrends included Indiabulls Housing, Havells, Torrent Pharma, HPCL, SAIL and Punjab National Bank.

* And Natco Pharma, Jindal Steel & Power, Can Fin Homes, Bajaj Finserv, Venky's India and Triveni Engineering were stocks that hit fresh highs in trade on Tuesday.