Mumbai, July 24 -- The key equity benchmarks traded with major losses in early trade on Friday. The Nifty traded below the 23,950 mark. IT and media shares advanced, while all other sectoral indices traded in the red on the NSE.

At 09:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, tanked 579.30 points or 0.74% to 75,830.10. The Nifty 50 index fell 167.20 points or 0.70% to 23,702.40.

In the broader market, the BSE 150 MidCap Index fell 0.80% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index shed 0.79%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 928 shares rose and 2,031 shares fell. A total of 187 shares were unchanged.

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, jumped 5.51% to 14.22.

Foreign portfolio in...