NEW DELHI: Bearish sentiments returned to haunt equity markets on Friday as Sensex tanked as much as 509.54 points to close at 33,176. The broader 50-share NSE Nifty too cracked more than 1.50 per cent to slip below the 10,200-mark.

The markets had opened in the red in the morning session itself amid upheaval in national politics as Telugu Desam Party ( TDP ) pulled out of the Narendra Modi led- National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Friday, being the last day of trading in the week, investors turned cautious on turbulence in the political circles, that may play out over the weekend.

Apart from that, trade war woes once again rocked the markets with the Trump administration mounting a fresh offensive against India by dragging it to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for providing what it termed as export subsidies through half-a-dozen schemes. Metal stocks which faced jitters after Trump hiked import tariffs of steel and aluminium, once again bore the brunt on Friday as the Nifty Metal sub-index tanked above 2 per cent.

The negative sentiment of the market cut across sectors as all the sub-indices finished in the red.

Tata Motors, Asian Paints, Hero MotoCorp and Sun Pharma scrips bled the most during the day.

