Mumbai, Feb. 24 -- The key equity benchmarks traded with significanct losses in early trade. The Nifty traded below the 22,650 mark. Barring pharma index all the sectoral indices traded in red with realty, media and IT shares declining the most.

At 09:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, declined 540.49 points or 0.72% to 74,759.17. The Nifty 50 index shed 172.95 points or 0.76% to 22,622.95.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.56% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 1.96%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 722 shares rose and 2,287 shares fell. A total of 135 shares were unchanged.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 3,449.15 crore, while domestic institutional investors (D...