Indian shares slip after strong rally; Vodafone Idea slumps 24%

BENGALURU: Indian shares took a breather on Thursday after surging more than 3% this week, as banking shares weighed, while troubled telecom operator Vodafone Idea tumbled 24% after its non-executive chairman stepped down.

By 0447 GMT, the blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index and the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.1% each to 16,240 and 54,306.96, respectively.

The Nifty Bank index, which rose over 2.3% in the previous session, declined 0.6%, while the public sector banking index dropped 2.4%.

Indian shares end lower on banks, auto stocks

"The market has moved up quite a bit this week and may pause a little. But, it still remains a buy-on-dips market ... There is a lot of liquidity and one needs to remain cautious as a lot of initial public offerings (IPOs) are coming," said Samrat Dasgupta, CEO of Esquire Capital Investment Advisors in Mumbai.

This week's rally has been narrow and limited to some large-cap stocks, unlike previous ones, and that is all the more reason to be more cautious, Dasgupta also said.

Shares of the telecom operator, down nearly 44% this week, hit their lowest since May 15, 2020 to 4.55 rupees. Its major rival Bharti Airtel Ltd climbed 2.9%.

Meanwhile, US Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida - a major architect of the US central bank's new policy strategy - said in an overnight speech that he felt the conditions for raising rates could be met by the end of 2022.

The speech comes at a time Indian markets are closely watching the country's central bank policy outcome on Friday for cues on liquidity even as it is mostly expected to be stay put on rates.