The BSE benchmark Sensex declined by over 33 points in early trade today as investors preferred to book profits ahead of the RBI’s mid-quarter monetary policy review tomorrow.

Besides, a mixed trend on Asian bourses also dampened the trading sentiments here. The 30-share barometer, which gained 87.99 points in the previous session, fell by 33.22 points, or 0.17 per cent, to 19,284.03.

Stocks of consumer durables, capital goods and FMCG sectors fell due to profit-booking. Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty shed 19.40 points, or 0.32 per cent, to 5,860.20.

Brokers said besides profit-booking by speculators after gains on Friday, a cautious approach ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s mid-quarter monetary policy review tomorrow and a mixed trend on the Asian bourses influenced the trading sentiments. In the Asian region, Japan’s Nikkei Index gained 1.62 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index down 0.25 per cent in early trade. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.27 per cent down on Friday on uncertainty over the fiscal cliff.

Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange fell 0.27 percent. The MSCI-Asia Pacific index excluding Japan was down 0.3 percent.

U.S. stocks fell on Friday as another slide in Apple took a toll and investors unloaded some shares because of the uncertainty surrounding the “fiscal cliff” negotiations.

The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan’s electoral triumph propelled the yen to a 20- month low against the dollar and saw the Nikkei stock average touch a 8-1/2-month high on expectations of much better export earnings.

India will speed up the sale of stakes in state companies to revive the stock market and will push ahead with reforms aimed at spurring an investment recovery in the flagging economy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday.

The oil ministry may raise prices of diesel by 1 rupee a litre or that of cooking gas by 100 rupees to neutralise the impact of its plan to increase the supply of subsidised cylinders to households, said government officials who requested anonymity.

Oil companies have been told by the finance ministry to coordinate with the Reserve Bank of India before stepping out to buy dollars, according to a person who attended the meetings.

A government-appointed panel has recommended the end of the controversial system in which oil firms recover their costs from sale of oil and gas in all future contracts and suggested a transparent structure for sharing the output between the government and the contractor.

Reliance Industries and its partner BP have shut a seventh well in the D6 block off the country’s east coast due to sand and water ingress, bringing down the number of producing wells to 11, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Coal India’s output dipped about 2 percent in November from a year ago due to cyclone Neelam and holidays on account of festivals, according to its chairman.