By Sethuraman N R

BENGALURU, May 30 (Reuters) - 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.

"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.