New Delhi, Sept. 11 -- The Indian stock market benchmarks suffered strong losses in morning trade on Friday, 11 September, mirroring a weak global trend. The Sensex crashed over 740 points, or 1%, to drop to 74,160, while the NSE barometer Nifty 50 plunged about 250 points, or 1%, to hit an intraday low of 23,231.

The selloff was broad-based as the BSE 150 Midcap and 250 Smallcap indices plunged up to 1.5%.

Investors lost about Rs.6 lakh crore within the first five minutes of trade as the overall market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms dropped to nearly Rs.478 lakh crore from nearly Rs.484 lakh crore in the previous session.

US stocks fell overnight as an increase in key inflation data heightened market concerns. Moreover, rising ten...