Mumbai, Mar 16 (IANS): A huge sell-off across all sectors led by oil and gas, metals, auto and banking stocks dragged the Indian equity markets further into the negative territory during Friday's afternoon session, with the BSE Sensex shedding over 500 points.

At 2.50 p.m., the barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE traded at 33,168.43 points down 517.11 points or 1.54 per cent from the previous session's close -- scaling a low of 33,148.59 points during the intra-day trade.

The BSE market breadth was bearish with 1,838 declines and 796 advances.

Tata Motors, Adani Ports, NTPC, ONGC and ITC were the top drags on the BSE.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the wider Nifty50 declined by 172.90 points or 1.67 per cent to trade at 10,187.25 points.

On Thursday, the NSE Nifty50 fell by 50.75 points or 0.49 per cent to close trade at 10,360.15 points while the Sensex closed at 33,685.54 points -- down 150.20 points or 0.44 per cent.