Indian shares end lower as bank stocks weigh; rate hike worries loom

By Rama Venkat

BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian shares shed gains from earlier in the session to end lower as rate-sensitive bank and realty stocks declined, with concerns over inflation and global economic growth denting investor sentiment.

The NSE Nifty 50 index ended down 0.12% at 16,240.30 and the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.2% to 54,208.53. The indexes had gained 0.86% each earlier in the session.

"The country has just started its rate-hike cycle this month and that has not been priced into all sectors, so we are seeing rate-sensitive sectors like banks and realty showing more weakness," said Rohit Srivastava, founder and market strategist at Indiacharts.

Nifty's public sector bank and realty indexes were the top losers, falling over 1% each.

Power Grid Corp was Nifty's top percentage loser, down 4.5%, while its IT index, which was the top gainer earlier in the session, settled 0.47% lower.

Cigarettes-to-hotel conglomerate ITC was up 0.79%, ahead of its quarterly earnings results.

Bharat Rasayan closed 4.1% lower after the chemical manufacturing firm said https://bit.ly/39y9L5R late on Tuesday that a fire broke out at one of its plants in the western state of Gujarat leaving eight to 10 people injured.

Broader Asian shares eked out gains, while European stocks were mixed on inflation and economic growth worries. [MKTS/GLOB]

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday pledged the U.S. central bank would ratchet interest rates as high as needed to kill a surge in inflation.

(Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Aditya Soni and Vinay Dwivedi)