Indian shares fall; crude producers jump on sale deregulation

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian shares fell on Wednesday to snap a four-day winning streak as worries over inflation resurfaced amid surging oil prices, while domestic explorers rose in late trade after the country approved a plan to give marketing freedom to sell crude.

The NSE Nifty 50 index closed 0.32% lower to 15,799.10 and the S&P BSE Sensex slipped 0.3% to 53,026.97. The rupee dropped 0.25% to a record low of 78.97 per dollar. [INR/]

Global stock markets slipped for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, while oil prices gained for a fourth straight session on fears of tight supplies. [MKTS/GLOB][O/R]

Interest rate and inflation worries have kept the Nifty and Sensex on course for their worst month since the pandemic-hit March of 2020. The blue-chip indexes had lost nearly 9% this year.

Indian equity markets are likely to see their biggest foreign fund outflows this month since March 2020.

Overseas investors had offloaded a net $6.29 billion worth of equities this month, as of June 28, compared with a net selling of $4.63 billion in the same period last month, according to Refinitiv data.

Shares of crude producers Oil India and Oil & Natural Gas Corp ended 4.8% and 3.2% higher, respectively, after the India cabinet approved deregulation of sale of domestically produced crude oil.

On Wednesday, the Nifty Bank index slid 1.1%, while Reliance Industries, India's most valuable firm, helped plug some losses in the market with a 2.1% gain.

Tejas Networks jumped 7.5% after Japanese chipmaker Renesas said it would work with the company on wireless network solutions including 5G.

IT services firm Route Mobile fell 6.6% as investors were disappointed at the size of company's buyback and the open market route.

(Reporting by Chris Thomas and Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Gaurav Dogra; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)