Mumbai, March 9 -- The key equity benchmarks traded with sharp losses in the afternoon trade as sentiment remained weak amid escalating West Asia tensions, raised concerns over LNG supply disruptions, surging crude prices, inflationary pressures, and global growth uncertainty. The Nifty traded dropped below the 24,000 level.

All the sectoral indices on the NSE were traded in red with PSU Bank, auto and consumer durables stocks leading the decline.

At 13:25 ST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex slumped 1864.74 points or 2.35% to 77,077.37. The Nifty 50 index tanked 568.45 points or 2.32% to 23,894.05.

The broader market underperformed the key equity indices. The BSE 150 MidCap Index fell 2.69% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index declin...