BENGALURU: Indian shares were lower in early trades on Tuesday, tracking other Asian stocks after hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials against inflation.
The Nifty 50 index was down 0.48% to 18,015.05 as of 9:32 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.55% at 60,414.75.
IT stocks led losses on the benchmark indexes with IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) falling 2.5% after it reported third-quarter profit that missed estimates.
TCS and Infosys , declining 1.3%, were the top losers on the Nifty 50 index.
While Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is expected to say more time is needed to show inflation is under control, markets will wait to see inflation levels at home and in the US, making them key to determine rate expectations.
If US consumer price data confirms cooling seen in the most recent monthly jobs report, Atlanta Fed Bank President Bostic said he would have to take a quarter point increase “more seriously and to move in that direction”.
Meanwhile, India’s retail inflation held steady in December, staying within the Reserve Bank of India’s comfort zone for a second month, a Reuters poll of economists found.
The data is due on Thursday. In other Asian equities, the MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.29%.
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