Mumbai, Oct. 8 -- The key equity benchmarks continued to trade with significant losses in eary afternoon trade, weighed down by sustained foreign selling and elevated crude oil prices. The Nifty traded below the 22,400 level. Nifty traded below 22,350 mark.

Metal shares witnessed selling pressure for second consecutive trading sessions.

At 12:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex declined 763.32 points or 1.05% to 71,880.12. The Nifty 50 index dropped 277.45 points or 1.23% to 22,326.80.

The broader market underperformed the frontline indices. The Nifty MidCap 150 Index fell 1.64% and the Nifty SmallCap 250 Index declined 1.97%.

The market breadth was weak. On the NSE, 633 shares rose and 2,808 shares fell. A total of 111 sh...