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Indian benchmark indexes are expected to see a muted opening on Friday, tracking their Asian peers, following a sell-off overnight in the U.S. markets on fears of that interest rates will stay higher for longer.

India's GIFT Nifty was higher by about 0.15% to 19,691 points at 7:55 a.m. IST on the NSE International Exchange.

The Nifty 50 closed 0.8% lower at a two-week low of 19,742.35 points on Thursday, while the S&P BSE Sensex declined about 0.85% to 66,230.24 points.

For the week, both the indexes are down over 2% and were on track for their first weekly decline in four.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan were down 0.4% after all three major U.S. stock indexes tumbled more than 1% overnight as the Federal Reserve stiffened its hawkish monetary policy stance. [MKTS/GLOB]

Higher interest rates dry up liquidity from the markets, increasing the cost of capital.

Already, foreign investors have been net sellers so far this month, offloading shares worth $996.2 million as of Sept. 20.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth 31.11 billion rupees ($375.2 million), on a net basis, on Wednesday and 30.07 billion rupees worth on Thursday, according to stock exchange data.

Domestic investors, meanwhile sold shares worth 5.73 billion rupees on Wednesday but bought shares worth 11.58 billion rupees on Thursday, the data showed.

Meanwhile, Indian government bonds will be included in JPMorgan's widely tracked emerging market debt index from June 2024, the Wall Street bank said on Friday.

STOCKS TO WATCH:

** Wipro: CFO Dalal resigns, Aparna Iyer appointed new finance chief

** JSW Group: JSW is in talks with LG Energy Solution to make EV batteries in India

** Amara Raja Batteries, Exide Industries, HBL Power Systems: Tesla proposes building a battery storage factory in India

** Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Glenmark Life Sciences: Glenmark Pharma to sell a majority stake in its life sciences unit for $680 million

** JSW Steel: Co slows process to buy a stake in the steelmaking coal unit of Canada's Teck Resources

($1 = 82.8270 Indian rupees)