Indian shares edge down as consumer, tech stocks drag
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Indian shares gave up opening gains on Tuesday, dragged by consumer and IT stocks, as investors secured profits after a four-week rally, even as data showed annual retail inflation for October eased roughly in line with estimates.
The NSE Nifty 50 index was down 0.19% at 18,294.10 as of 0505 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex slipped 0.21% to 61,497.18.
"The market is near an all-time high. I don't think we're going to see a correction, but the market will be very selective," said A.K. Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital.
Slower rise in food prices helped India's annual retail inflation ease to 6.77% in October, from 7.41% in the previous month, data showed on Monday. However, that was higher than the 6.73% forecast by economists in a Reuters poll and the central bank's 2%-6% target band.
Nifty's consumer and IT indexes were among the biggest losers, dropping 0.9% and 0.8%, respectively, countering the increases in bank and auto indexes.
More than 1,000 companies reported their quarterly results on Monday as the country's month-long earnings season drew to a close.
Low-cost carrier SpiceJet fell nearly 2% after reporting a bigger quarterly loss on a surge in fuel costs and depreciating rupee. Viscose and chemicals manufacturer Grasim Industries dropped around 2% as profit slipped.
The country's largest oil explorer ONGC was the top gainer on Nifty 50, rising 2.6%, after beating quarterly standalone profit estimates, while tyremaker Apollo Tyres climbed over 5% on a rise in earnings.
Globally, investors will get another look at U.S. inflation when the producer price index data is released at 1330 GMT.
