Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty dropped in early trade on Monday amid selling pressure in IT stocks and foreign fund outflows. The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 232.93 points to 82,267.54 in early trade. The 50-share NSE Nifty dipped 71.4 points to 25,078.45.

From the Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, HCL Tech and Asian Paints were among the biggest laggards. However, Trent, Axis Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra and NTPC were among the gainers.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 5,104.22 crore on Friday, according to exchange data. "Nifty has been exhibiting weak trend weighed mainly by the weakness in the IT stocks. This weakness may persist particularly since the FIIs were big sellers in the cash market last Friday. Market is expecting a US