Sensex in free fall, down by over 550 points

TIL Desk/Business/Mumbai/ The BSE Sensex dropped 574 points, with the Nifty50 below 11,000 today eroding consumer confidence and wiping out investor wealth.

The losses were sustained on bouts of selling in realty, auto, banks, finance, telecom, industrials and healthcare stocks amid rising crude prices and weak Asian cues.

Major losers in the afternoon were M&M, Maruti, HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, ITC, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank and Kotak Bank.

On Friday, investors on Dalal Street become poorer by Rs 5,66,187 crore in just four sessions of market fall. Friday was the fourth consecutive fall for Sensex and Nifty. Sensex has lost 1,249 points, or 3.28 per cent even as Nifty fell 372 points or 3.23 per cent in the last four sessions.