Mumbai, Oct. 22 -- The key equity benchmarks remained firmly in negative territory in early afternoon, despite recovering from their intraday lows, as elevated crude oil prices and weakness in heavyweight stocks dampened investor sentiment. The Nifty slipped below the 22,600 level.

IT shares declined after advancing in the past trading session.

At 12:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex declined 550.92 points or 0.75% to 73,175.43. The Nifty 50 index lost 211.45 points or 0.93% to 22,599.20.

The broader market underperformed the frontline indices. The Nifty MidCap 150 Index declined 1.05% and the Nifty SmallCap 250 Index fell 1.16%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 901 shares rose and 2,506 shares fell. A total of 1...