BENGALURU: Indian shares opened lower on Wednesday on fears of a prolonged high-interest rate regime in the United States after data showed consumer inflation in January remained sticky in the world’s largest economy.
The Nifty 50 index was down 0.20% at 17,892.10 as of 9:19 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.24% to 60,882.93. Eleven of the 13 major sectoral indices fell, with fast-moving consumer goods losing nearly 1%. The high-weightage IT fell over 0.7% after data showed that retail inflation in the US rose 6.4% year-on-year in January, above the expectations of 6.2%.
Consumer prices rose 0.5% month-on-month. India’s IT firms get a significant share of their revenue from the US The overall market sentiment remains that of ‘caution’, said Prashanth Tapse, research analyst at Mehta Equities.
Thirty-two of the Nifty 50 constituents declined, with Apollo Hospitals, Hindustan Unilever, Larsen & Toubro and Tata Consultancy Services among the top losers.
Wall Street equities were mixed on Tuesday, while Asian markets declined.
The MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan losing 1.43%.