Mumbai, Feb. 12 -- The headline equity benchmarks dropped nearly 1% in morning trade on Monday, facing significant losses as concerns over persistent foreign institutional investor (FII) selling and escalating trade war tensions continued to weigh on market sentiment. The Nifty slipped below the 22,900 level. Realty shares extended losses for the third consecutive trading session.

At 10:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, slipped 730.93 points or 0.94% to 75,566.26. The Nifty 50 index lost 220.75 points or 0.96% to 22,851.05.

The broader market underperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 2.64%, and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index dropped 3.40%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 510 shares rose a...