Markets decline in early trade on foreign fund outflows

New Delhi: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty declined in early trade on Tuesday amid uncertainty on the geopolitical and global trade front.

Foreign fund outflows also weighed on investors' sentiments.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 194.65 points to 81,179.10 in early trade. The NSE Nifty dipped 62.35 points to 24,654.25.

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From the Sensex firms, Adani Ports, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel and Hindustan Unilever were among the biggest laggards.

Eternal, Tata Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra and IndusInd Bank were among the gainers.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 2,589.47 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.

"With a lot of uncertainty in geopolitics, tariffs and trade, the market will continue to remain volatile. Therefore, investors may persist with the strategy of buying on dips," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited, said.

In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi, Japan's Nikkei 225 index, Shanghai's SSE Composite index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng were trading in the positive territory.

US markets ended higher on Monday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.57 percent to USD 65 a barrel.

After tumbling 796.75 points or 0.97 percent to 80,654.26 in intra-day trade on Monday, the 30-share BSE Sensex witnessed volatile trends and later ended 77.26 points or 0.09 percent lower at 81,373.75. The Nifty dipped 34.10 points or 0.14 percent to settle at 24,716.60.

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