By Manvi Pant
BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian shares steadied near record highs on Tuesday, ahead of a raft of data that may determine how deeply the U.S. will cut interest rates later this month.
The Nifty 50 index was largely unchanged at 25,259.3 points, while the S&P BSE Sensex dipped 0.1% to 82,490.79.
The blue-chip Nifty 50 gained 4.7% in a thirteen-session rally, its longest ever, until Monday. Both the benchmarks hit lifetime highs in the previous session.
“There are not many positive local levers for markets to sustain highs,” said Aishvarya Dadheech, founder and chief investment officer at Fident Asset Management.
All eyes are now on U.S. economic data, including U.S. ISM manufacturing survey due later in the day and particularly jobs data on Friday, that could provide cues on the extent of Federal Reserve rate cuts.
U.S. personal consumption expenditure data last week showed an uptick, raising expectations that the Fed was likely to opt for a smaller rate cut at its September meeting.
Markets are fully pricing an at least 25 basis-point rate cut at the September meeting. Expectations for a 50 basis-point reduction, however, fell to 31% from 32% last week.
Interest rate cuts in the U.S. tend to bring in more foreign fund inflows into emerging markets like India.
On the day, nine of the 13 major sectoral indexes were trading in the red, though losses were marginal.
The pharma index was the biggest sectoral gainer, rising 0.8%, while heavyweight financials and the energy index fell about 0.3% each.
Among individual stocks, Hindustan Composites surged 6.8% on a deal to acquire shares in food delivery firm Swiggy.
Solar modules maker Premier Energies’ shares more than doubled in debut trade.
(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Sonia Cheema)
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