The BSE benchmark Sensex lost over 140 points in the early trade today. It was trading at 16539 down by 337 points a short while ago. The fall in Sensex is due to fresh selling in metal, realty, refinery, power and capital goods stocks amid weak Asian cues.The NSE's 50-share Nifty index was also down by 46.55 points, or 0.92 per cent, to 5,016.05 in morning trade. It was trading 101 points at 4962 a short while ago.Asian stocks declined in early trade amid weak economic data from Japan and Australia that signaled the global economy is slowing ahead of a European summit on the euro zone sovereign debt crisis.The key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan were down by between 0.5 per cent and 1.54 per cent, while China's Shanghai Composite was up by 0.32 per cent.