New Delhi: Benchmark equity indices declined in early trade on Tuesday amid profit taking after a record-breaking rally and selling in bluechips Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank.

Both Sensex and Nifty hit their all-time high levels in early trade on Monday.

Later, both indices faced heavy volatile trends and were trading between highs and lows.

Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tech Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, Tata Steel and Titan were among the gainers.

In Asian markets, Seoul and Tokyo quoted higher while Shanghai and Hong Kong traded lower.

Signalling continuity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday retained Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar in charge of the four high-profile ministries - Home, Defence, Finance and External Affairs - respectively in his new government.

The four ministers in charge of these portfolios make up the crucial Cabinet Committee on Security headed by the prime minister.

"BJP keeping the key portfolios signals continuity in policies. This is a positive from the market perspective," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.23 percent to USD 81.44 a barrel.

After breaching the 77,000-mark during early trade on Monday, the BSE benchmark came under selling pressure at the fag-end of the session and ended 203.28 points or 0.27 per cent lower at 76,490.08. Halting its three-day rally, the NSE Nifty dipped 30.95 points or 0.13 per cent to settle at 23,259.20.

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