Equity benchmark indices fell in early trade on Tuesday in line with weak Asian markets and continuous foreign fund outflows.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 98.14 points to 65,925.55. The Nifty declined 18.75 points to 19,655.80.

Among the Sensex firms, Asian Paints, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Axis Bank were the major laggards.

Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement, Larsen & Toubro and Bharti Airtel were among the gainers.

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

The US markets ended in the positive territory on Monday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.45 per cent to USD 92.87 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 2,333.03 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.

"Bearish sentiment across the Asian markets could drag down local shares in early Tuesday trade. FII selling in the current month so far has precipitated the fall, with rising US dollar index and treasury yields coupled with higher crude oil prices further dampening the sentiment.

"Renewed worries over major central banks resorting to likely rate hikes to rein in inflation are making investors jittery about the sluggish demand and slowdown in growth going ahead," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said in his pre-opening market comment.

The BSE benchmark had eked out a marginal gain of 14.54 points or 0.02 per cent to settle at 66,023.69 on Monday. The broader Nifty ended marginally up 0.30 points at 19,674.55.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.