New Delhi: Benchmark indices fell in early trade on Friday amid weak global market trends and a cautious approach by investors ahead of the Reserve Bank's monetary policy decision. The 30-share BSE benchmark fell 262.73 points to 56,147.23 points in initial trades. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty dipped 70.4 points to 16,747.70 points.


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Among the 30-share Sensex pack, Asian Paints, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Mahindra & Mahindra and Hindustan Unilever were the major laggards in the early trade. However, Power Grid, Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries and UltraTech Cement were in the positive territory. Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were quoting lower while Seoul traded higher.


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The US markets had ended sharply lower on Thursday. "Markets are expected to be volatile before the announcement of RBI's policy decision scheduled today. Weak global cues will continue to rupture any intra-day strength in the Nifty," Prashanth Tapse - Research Analyst, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.


The BSE benchmark fell 188.32 points or 0.33 per cent to settle at 56,409.96 points on Thursday. The Nifty dipped 40.50 points or 0.24 per cent to end at 16,818.10 points. Meanwhile, the international oil benchmark Brent crude futures dipped 0.19 per cent to USD 88.32 per barrel. Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth Rs 3,599.42 crore on Thursday, according to data available with BSE.