Indian shares tread water ahead of Fed policy decision
Updates at 9:44 a.m. IST
By Bharath Rajeswaran
BENGALURU, Sept 18 (Reuters) -Indian shares were little changed on Wednesday and are expected to tread water through the session ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's rate decision and commentary due after market hours.
The Nifty 50 index .NSEI was up 0.05% at 25,430.05 points, while the S&P BSE Sensex .BSESN also added 0.05% at 83,113, as of 9:44 a.m. IST.
Other Asian markets were also muted. MKTS/GLOB
While the Fed is widely expected to lower rates, the size of the cut, whether 25 basis points or 50 bps, was still not clear. The odds of a 50-bps cut have climbed to 65% from 34% last week.
While a bigger cut will likely see foreign funds shifting to emerging markets such as India in search of higher returns, it has prompted fears that the Fed may have begun its easing cycle a little too late, at the cost of economic growth.
"Recent market action suggests that participants are in a wait-and-watch mode ahead of the Fed meeting," said Ajit Mishra, senior vice president of research at Religare Broking.
The Fed's reason for its decision and commentary on future policy will influence the near-term trajectory of Indian equities in terms of foreign inflows and the outlook for U.S.-dependent sectors such as IT and pharma, three analysts said.
IT stocks .NIFTYIT fell 2.4%, dragged by a 2.5% drop in Infosys INFY.NS after Macquarie said that the company will continue to lag rival Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS.
Pharma index .NIPHARM shed 0.4%.
Overall, eight of 13 sectors logged gains. The small- .NIFSMCP100 and mid-caps .NIFMDCP100 were little changed.
Among individual stocks, Torrent Power TOPO.NS rose 3% after getting a letter of intent for a 1,500 megawatt pumped hydro storage project in the state of Maharashtra.
Emcure Pharma EMCU.NS rose 4.2% after Kotak Institutional Equities started coverage with "buy", citing likely sustained earnings growth.
Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza, Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Sumana Nandy
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