By Bharath Rajeswaran
BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian shares were little changed on Friday, tracking a pause in the global equities’ rally ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s address, as investors awaited confirmation of their expectations for a U.S. rate cut next month.
The NSE Nifty 50 index was down 0.09% at 24,789.5 as of 9:44 a.m. IST. The S&P BSE Sensex shed 0.15% to 80,933.11.
The benchmarks rose in the previous six sessions, adding about 2.8% each, helped by rising bets of a U.S. rate cut and on sustained domestic inflows.
Wall Street equities closed lower overnight, as sentiment turned cautious ahead of Fed Chair Powell’s speech in Jackson Hole, due after Indian market hours on Friday.
Asian markets declined, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index shedding 0.3%.
Investors expect a U.S. rate cut in September on the back of recent economic data and dovish commentary from Fed officials. [MKTS/GLOB]
“Domestic markets are closely monitoring global indexes for direction, and the pause in U.S. markets ahead of the Jackson Hole symposium is leading to some caution locally,” Ajit Mishra, senior vice president of research at Religare Broking said.
In India, 11 of the 13 major sectors logged losses.
IT companies, which earn a significant share of their revenue from the U.S., fell 1%, and were the top sectoral losers.
The broader, more domestically focused small- and mid-caps declined 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.
Ambuja Cements rose about 2% on multiple block deals at a premium over the last close.
An Adani group-owned company, Holderind Investments, is likely to sell a stake worth $500 million in Ambuja, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters on Thursday.
Fashion and beauty platform owner FSN E-Commerce rose 2.6% on block deals at a premium over the last close.
Power Mech Projects gained 6% after the engineering and construction company decided to issue bonus shares.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
