Domestic equity benchmarks Nifty50 and Sensex dropped on Thursday, May 9 amid a broad-based sell-off led by financial, and construction stocks and persistently elevated volatility on jitters over the outcome of the ongoing national elections.

Benchmark equity indices were trading with a loss of over one percent in today’s afternoon session due to continuous selling by FIIs.

The hawkish stance of the US Fed has also dampened investor sentiments.  

The BSE Sensex was trading 796 points or 1.08 percent lower at 72,670 points. The NSE Nifty was trading 265 points or 1.19 percent down at the 22,038 level.

Among the Nifty companies, 43 stocks were declining while 7 were advancing. L&T, BPCL, Asian Paints, Coal India, and, ONGC were the top decliners in the Nifty50 basket while Hero MotoCorp, Tata Motors, and M&M led the gains.

“The broader market witnessed volatility, underscoring caution on account of Q4 earnings and general election uncertainties, which led investors to stay on the sidelines,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said.

“We expect the trend to continue in the short term as the market slid below the physiological level of 22,000. The global indices are trading with mixed cues ahead of the BOE policy meeting later today and US inflation figures due next week,” he added.