Falling for the fourth straight day, the Sensex ended below the 25,000 mark, as stock markets were battered across the globe yet again, today. The Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange plummeted 555 points, or 2.2 percent, to a 19-month low of 24,852. The Sensex has now lost over 1,300 points in just four trading sessions. The Nifty at the National Stock Exchange plunged 173 points, or 2.2 percent, to 7,568. The Chinese market sank more than 7 percent, soon after the market opened, and trading was halted for the day for the second time this week. Key bourses in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore were hammered down by between 1.1 percent and 3.1 percent. Markets in the UK, Germany and France also suffered huge losses. The global markets fell on increasing concerns about the economic slowdown in China, as reflected in the Chinese central bank today allowing the biggest fall in its currency, the yuan, in five months. Global crude oil prices sank to an about 12-year low, with both Brent crude oil futures and U.S. crude oil slumping over 5 percent, to below 33 dollars a barrel. And at the forex market, the rupee weakened 11 paise, to 66.93 against the dollar.