BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian shares opened lower on Monday, dragged by IT stocks, while traders also braced for local retail inflation data, due later in the day.
The Nifty 50 index was down 0.20% at 18,459.35, as of 09:45 a.m IST, and the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.17% to 62,087.01. Both the benchmarks had fallen 0.8% at the open.
All the major sectoral indices declined, with Nifty IT falling the most at 1.7%, before trimming the losses.
Information technology stocks led the fall for the second session in a row, with Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Tech and Wipro among the top losers. The slide comes after HCL Technologies warned of a potential slowdown in client spending in U.S. markets.
Investors will also focus on domestic consumer price inflation data, due at 5:30 p.m. IST. According to a Reuters poll, the November CPI likely cooled to a nine-month low of 6.40% from 6.77% in October.
Inflation has stayed above the upper end of the Reserve Bank of India’s 2%-6% tolerance band all year, prompting the central bank to raise the repo rate by 35 basis points last week.
Also on markets’ radar are interest rate decisions by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, due later this week.
U.S. consumer inflation data for November, scheduled to be released on Tuesday, is likely to set the tone for global markets. The data comes on the heels of print showing producer prices in the U.S. rose at a faster-than-expected pace, triggering worries for a prolonged Fed rate hike cycle.
($1 = 82.4530 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng)
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