Indian shares fall for fifth session on weak global cues, election uncertainties

BENGALURU: Indian shares fell for a fifth straight session on Thursday, pressured by weakness in global peers, while some investors trimmed positions ahead of federal election results.

The NSE Nifty 50 closed down about 1% at 22,488 points, while the S&P BSE Sensex lost 0.9% to 73,885 points. The benchmark indexes saw their worst session in three weeks.

Asian stocks fell 1.3%, tracking the overnight drop on Wall Street on increasing bets that global interest rates would stay higher for longer.

Investors are trimming their positions ahead of the election outcome as a precaution, said Deepak Jasani, head of retail research, HDFC Securities, adding that weakness in global markets was also weighing.

Retail and high net-worth investors trimmed their net long positions in Indian index futures by a sixth from mid-May to May 28, NSE data showed.

Results for India’s general elections will be counted on June 4.

Indian shares inch lower as IT stocks weigh

“The market is completely discounting the fact that the current government will stay. However, if the government is not going to make it to the majority, it will be completely catastrophic for the market” said Aishvarya Dadheech, founder and chief investment officer at Fident Asset Management.

Among sectors, the U.S. interest rate-sensitive IT stocks fell 2.2%, seeing its worst intra-day percentage drop since April 16.

The more domestically focussed small-cap and mid-cap fell 1.6% and 1.3%, respectively.

Bank stocks were lone sectoral gainers, rising 0.4% after S&P Global Ratings raised its outlook on six banks to “positive”.

Among individual stocks, Edelweiss Financial Services fell 11.9% after the country’s central bank announced action on two of its units.

Shares of Tata Steel fell 6% after it reported a fourth-quarter profit fall, while metals index dropped 3% on weak base metals prices.

Marksans Pharma tanked 14% after quarterly profit fall.