Benchmark equity indices declined in early trade on Friday tracking a weak trend in global markets and fresh foreign fund outflows.

Falling for the third day running, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined 233.98 points to 81,967.18 in early trade. The NSE Nifty dropped 60 points to 25,085.10.

Among the 30 Sensex firms, State Bank of India, UltraTech Cement, Reliance Industries, NTPC, ICICI Bank and Titan were the biggest laggards.

Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints and IndusInd Bank were among the gainers.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading lower.

The US markets ended mostly in the negative territory on Thursday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 688.69 crore on Thursday after days of remaining buyers, according to exchange data.

Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.07 per cent to USD 72.64 a barrel.

"The near-term trend in the market will be influenced by the US jobs data to be published tonight," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

The BSE benchmark on Thursday failed to hold on to initial gains and declined 151.48 points or 0.18 per cent to settle at 82,201.16.

The NSE Nifty dipped 53.60 points or 0.21 per cent to 25,145.10 despite a positive beginning of the trade.

Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said, all eyes are now on the upcoming August US jobs report on Friday.

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