The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index Sensex lost over 78 points in early trade. The fall in Sensex is on fresh selling by funds amid a weakening trend on other Asian bourses. It was trading at 17632, down by 74 points a short while ago.The wide-based Nifty of the National Stock Exchange declined by 15 points to 5,352 points. Metal, IT and oil and gas stocks led the decline.In the Asia region, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down by 1.08 per cent and Japan's Nikkei index shed 0.56 per cent in morning trade today.