Mumbai, Aug. 6 -- The key equity benchmarks continued to trade with modest cuts in the mid-morning trade after the Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor Sanjay Malhotra, kept the repo rate unchanged at 5.5% and maintained a neutral policy stance. The Nifty traded below the 24,600 level. IT shares extended losses for the second consecutive trading session.

At 11:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, dropped 229.62 points or 0.28% to 80,480.63. The Nifty 50 index declined 83.15 points or 0.34% to 24,558.

The broader market underperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index declined 1.18% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 1.54%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,079 shares r...