Equity benchmark indices declined in early trade on Monday as investors remained cautious amid continuous foreign fund outflows.

Falling for the third day running, the 30-share BSE Sensex went lower by 161.3 points to 65,998.90 in early trade. The NSE Nifty declined 48.45 points to 19,597.60.

However, later both the benchmark indices were trading flat bouncing back from the initial decline. The BSE benchmark quoted 10.26 points higher at 66,170.46 while the Nifty traded 1.40 points up at 19,647.45 From the Sensex pack, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, ITC, Hindustan Unilever and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the major laggards.

NTPC, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Power Grid, Tata Motors and Tata Consultancy Services were among the gainers.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 1,023.91 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

"In India even though the underlying strength of the market is strong, FPI selling of Rs 5,000 crore during the last two trading sessions might restrain the bulls," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading in the green.

The US markets had ended in the positive territory on Friday.

Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.58 per cent lower at USD 84.50 a barrel.

The BSE benchmark fell by 106.62 points or 0.16 per cent to settle at 66,160.20 on Friday. The Nifty had declined 13.85 points or 0.07 per cent to finish at 19,646.05.

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