BENGALURU, May 9 (Reuters) - Indian shares dropped on Thursday due to a slide in Larsen and Toubro (L&T) after its disappointing revenue outlook, and amid persistently elevated volatility on jitters over the outcome of the ongoing national elections.
The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 fell 0.46% to 22,200 as of 10:18 a.m. IST, while S&P BSE Sensex shed 0.48% to 73,110.
The volatility index rose 2.7%, setting the stage to gain for an eleventh straight session.
"The rise in volatility can be attributed to the fear of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance getting a weaker-than-expected majority," said Abhishek Goenka, founder and chief executive of IFA Global.
"We have seen immediate reversals in the Nifty after hitting fresh highs and this tells a lot about the jitters that the market has on account of the big event."
Construction major L&T, a Nifty heavyweight, shed 5.6% in its steepest intraday slide since May 2020, after it gave a subdued revenue growth outlook, citing the elections and geopolitical risks.
Infrastructure stocks fell by about 1%.
On the flip side, auto stocks advanced 2.2%, driven by Hero MotoCorp's continued gains following the two-wheeler maker beating fourth-quarter profit estimates.
Hero, which reported just ahead of the close on Wednesday, jumped 6% on the day to add to its 3% gain in the previous session.
Bank of Baroda rose 2.1%, after the central bank lifted restrictions on the lender's mobile application.
The domestically focussed small-caps and mid-caps were down 0.5% and 0.3%, respectively.
Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee and Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K, Janane Venkatraman and Savio D'Souza
Source: Reuters