BENGALURU: Indian shares extended losses on Wednesday after strong economic data from the US kept investors worried that central banks, including the US Fed, would have to keep raising interest rates to tackle inflation.
The Nifty 50 index was down 0.86% at 17,674.50, while the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.85% at 60,150.93 as of 10:34 a.m. IST.
Both the Fed and the Reserve Bank of India were due to release minutes of their latest policy meetings, giving investors a glimpse of their thinking on future rate-hike trajectories.
Indian shares end lower in cautious trade
“The probability of impending rate hikes by the US Fed has risen from two to three, in the light of new data,” said Siddhartha Khemka, head of retail research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
“Fear of a hawkish Fed has gripped markets and kept investors on tenterhooks.”
Global markets fell after an unexpectedly strong reading of S&P Global’s composite purchasing managers’ index (PMI) showed that the US economy was not cooling.
Twelve of the 13 major sectoral indexes fell, with high-weightage financials dropping 0.83% and information technology stocks losing nearly 0.75%, respectively.
All 10 constituents of the IT index were in the red.
Forty-two of the Nifty 50 constituents declined with Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports falling nearly 7% and 4%, respectively.
Among individual stocks, Wockhardt bucked the broader trend and jumped nearly 6% after the company said a restructuring of its business will lead to annual savings of $12 million.
Separately, the National Stock Exchange extended trading hours for interest rate derivatives to 5 p.m. IST from Feb. 23, to better hedge risks with global equities.
In a discussion paper, India’s markets regulator had said that longer trading hours helped market participants manage risks arising out of global information flow.
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