Mumbai, Aug 1 (IANS): Sensex plunged by over 500 points to fall below the 37,000-point mark during the afternoon trade on Thursday.

Indian equities in line with global markets fell as the US Federal Reserve after slashing the interest rates by 25 basis points, first since 2008, said it is "not the beginning of a long series of rate cuts".

Fed's hawkish comments amid a slowdown took the global investor by surprise and this resulted in a sell-off.

At 12.08 p.m., the Sensex was trading 468.06 points lower at 37,013.06. It hit an intra-day low of 36,976.97.

Only 8 of the Nifty 50 stocks traded in the green. Among the top losers were Vedanta, Zee, Tata Motors, JSW Steel and Hindalco, which fell in the range of 3 to 5 per cent.

The gainers were Wipro, Infratel, Power Grid and Maruti Suzuki.

Meanwhile, Cafe Coffee Day shares hit lower circuit for the third day in a row since CCD founder V.G. Siddhartha mysteriously disappeared and was found dead on Wednesday.

The CCD shares stood at Rs 110.95 apiece.