BENGALURU: Indian shares ended lower for a third straight session on Tuesday as a surprise interest rate hike in Australia deepened worries around aggressive policy tightening ahead of a meeting of the domestic central bank.
The NSE Nifty 50 index closed 0.92% lower at 16,416.35 and the S&P BSE Sensex slipped 1.02% to 55,107.34.
The movement was in line with broader weakness in equities after a 50-basis-point rate increase by the Reserve Bank of Australia compounded concerns that hawkish central banks could tip the global economy into a recession.
The Indian stock market has seen volatile moves in the run-up to a central bank rate decision on Wednesday. Grappling with stubbornly high inflation, the Reserve Bank of India was expected to further tighten policy after its unscheduled rate hike in May.
The central bank will be likely to concentrate interest rate hikes over the coming months in a relatively short tightening cycle, to reach its terminal level early next year, a Reuters poll showed.
On Tuesday, the market was weighed down by broad-based losses, with banks, real estate and pharmaceutical stocks all losing more than 1%. Beaten-down technology stocks closed 1.6% lower to take their losses for the year to more than 24%.
Financial services platform PB Fintech settled down 11.5% after it said the firm’s chief executive intends to sell 3.8 million shares through bulk deals on the stock exchange.
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