Indian shares slump, tech drags on US rate hike fears

A man looks at a screen displaying budget news, on a facade of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai, India, February 1, 2022. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

BENGALURU, Sept 14 (Reuters) – Indian shares tumbled on Wednesday, led by sharp declines in technology stocks, as faster-than-expected US inflation data stoked fears that the Federal Reserve would not let up on its aggressive policy tightening.

The NSE Nifty 50 index (.NSEI) was down 1.04% at 17,882.65, as of 0348 GMT while the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) slid 1.1% to 59,902.74.

In early trades on Wednesday, the Nifty and the Sensex had dropped 1.65% and 1.91%, respectively, posting their biggest intraday fall in over two weeks.

The Nifty IT index (.NIFTYIT) was the hardest hit in Mumbai, sliding 3.7%, with IT majors Infosys (INFY.NS) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS.NS) dropping around 3.5% each.

Wall Street had plunged the most since June 2020 and Asian shares skidded after US consumer price data unexpectedly rose in August, cementing expectations that the Fed will deliver a third 75-basis-point rate hike next week.

Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Neha Arora

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