Mumbai, March 7 -- The domestic equity benchmarks pared all gains and traded with minor losses in early-afternoon trade. The Nifty traded below the 22,550 mark. IT shares declined after advancing in the past two consecutive trading sessions.

At 12:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, slipped 60.65 points, or 0.08%, to 74,287.53. The Nifty 50 index lost 10.85 points, or 0.05%, to 22,533.85.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.42% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.62%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,436 shares rose and 1362 shares fell. A total of 157 shares were unchanged.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, shed 0.4...